Managing Corporate Real Estate: Leading and Emerging Practices

This year’s survey findings solidify the recent trend of an evolving CRE mission and purpose. CRE has become a department whose overarching mission is business enablement.

CRE’s Elevated Mission & Purpose

Most global CRE teams (83%) cite enabling the core business as their overarching purpose, but what exactly does this mean? CRE teams have been enabling the business since formal CRE departments were first established.

While CRE has always been responsible for areas such as expense management and on-time delivery of projects, the team now has a more codified connection to business success. For instance, Lines of Business (LOBs) see the impact that real estate costs have on their ability to meet financial plans. The timing of new store openings can make or break the meeting of growth goals. And the physical workplace can attract top talent and foster company innovation.

Ultimately, CRE’s impact on the business is now understood in-depth. And this new mindset is having a ripple effect throughout the CRE team—from mission and initiatives to team structure, business intelligence and performance measures.

Figure 1: How would you describe the primary mission and priorities of your CRE organization?
Please select your top 5 objectives.

CRE leaders expect to lead numerous strategic initiatives simultaneously throughout 2025.

CRE Leader Key Initiatives

The most common business-enablement initiatives are transforming workplace experience and working with key functional partners.

Notably, over a third of CRE departments are reorganizing their internal departments (38%) and/or evolving their outsourcing partnership strategies (36%).

Fewer CRE departments have Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (26%) initiatives underway.

And significant real estate plans such as radically downsizing portfolios have diminished in focus (24%). Please see CBRE’s annual occupier study for further evidence that major portfolio optimization efforts are decreasing.

Figure 2: What innovative/transformational initiatives are CRE pursuing or planning to pursue in the next 12 months?
Please select all that apply.

The most common CRE performance metrics are now linked to the effectiveness of the physical work experience.

Employee Engagement/satisfaction is Key to Business Success

Employee engagement/satisfaction has catapulted to the top of the list—increasing 18% from last year’s study. Business unit leader satisfaction and cost avoidance remain focus areas but declined 11% and 7%, respectively.

With 64% noting employee engagement/satisfaction as the top CRE performance metric in 2024, CRE leaders must work with lines of business, partner functions and the C-suite to define and measure this broad category—exploring effectiveness, efficiency and retention.

Key engagement strategies CRE leaders use to enhance internal connections include customer relationship management, portfolio planning and cross-functional committees.

Figure 3: What key metrics guide CRE operations and performance?
Please select the top five used by your organization.

Portfolios look very different today than they did pre-pandemic. This, coupled with the fact that CRE teams have new and expanded goals, is resulting in CRE teams reevaluating their organizational structure and design.

Team Reorganizations

Given how the composition of most real estate portfolios has changed in recent years, CRE leaders are re-evaluating the structure and skill sets of the teams managing those portfolios.

While 58% of CRE leaders anticipate some form of near-term organizational changes within their teams, one in four CRE leaders anticipate a major restructuring during the next 12 months. In related research, CBRE Institute conducted our largest-ever organizational design research study during the summer of 2024, which provides insights into the structure of CRE departments around the world.

Figure 4: Is the CRE organization anticipating any organizational changes during the next 12 months?
Please select all that apply.

The need for new or different skills gravitates toward strategic functions and away from tactical execution.

New and Different Skills Required

The top five new or different skills needed within CRE teams include workplace strategy, reporting and analytics, portfolio planning, CRM and financial acumen.

Of note, workplace strategy is most often project-based (generally over two to four years), unless the portfolio is large and diverse. CRE teams ramping up internally for this skill today may find themselves over-staffed in the future.

Lastly, traditional functions (e.g., facilities management, project management, transaction management) are typically staffed via internal teams/service providers.

Figure 5: Where is the greatest demand for new or different skills in your organization?
Please select all that apply.

Technology and analytics have become vital to ensure CRE’s mission of business enablement, with CRE teams offering insights to the business in new and different ways.

Impact of Technology Tools

Lease administration is viewed as having the most significant impact to the enterprise (4.2 on a scale of 1 to 5). Given lease administration technologies have been in place for many years to mitigate critical date risks, CRE’s rating of the technology’s impact is well placed.

As the adoption of AI and generative learning within CRE grow, CBRE Institute anticipates smart building technologies could see a similar level of enterprise-wide impact.

Figure 6: How does your CRE organization view the impact of the technology tools that support each of the following functionals?
(Scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being Low Impact and 5 being Significant Impact).

About the Report

CBRE Institute and CoreNet Global have a long-standing partnership monitoring the established and emerging practices in the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) industry.

Our longitudinal research initiative surveys CRE leaders from around the world who manage regional and global portfolios. All major industries are represented (e.g., Financial Services, Technology, Manufacturing).

This year’s findings represent the views of CRE leaders responsible for a combined global portfolio of nearly 1.6 billion sq. ft.