Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis to Identify Leading Causes of Construction Delay in Residential Real Estate Projects of India

Abstract

Construction schedule overruns are a regular issue in construction projects across the world. The occurrence of such problems leads to disputes and litigation, which ultimately leads to disrepute to the project. Similar problems have been observed in residential high-rise projects across India. Many delay factors were identified for various countries from literature review and the same were categorized into relevant constructs. A questionnaire is formulated with the observations from literature review and inputs from industry experts for identifying the major delay constructs leading to construction delay in major cities of India. The delays were studied while considering construction of residential high-rise real estate projects. Statistical analysis is carried out using confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] for understanding the effect of constructs on construction delay in each of the locations. Further, analysis of variance ANOVA was performed to identify any significant differences between the means of constructs in the different locations surveyed by using One-way analysis of variance [ANOVA]. The observations from the study help understand the major delay categories leading to construction delay in residential high-rise projects. The results also reveal that there is a statistically significant difference between locations for each of the delay constructs and the major causes of schedule overrun are different across India. Better understanding of the causes leading to schedule overrun can help one achieve project completion withing stipulated time and budget. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.