How to Get a Handle On Corporate Real Estate Costs

Corporate real estate leaders not only have responsibility for coordinating all aspects of the work environment, but are also under pressure to reduce costs and improve processes.

To strike this balance, corporate real estate leaders need to take a close look at these eight key metrics. Because corporate real estate costs are one of the single greatest expenses for any business, they offer the biggest opportunity for savings. For instance, health insurance company Aetna has saved about $78 million per year since it began allowing a greater percentage of employees to work remotely, eliminating 2.7 million square feet of office space.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at what forward-thinking CREs are doing to control corporate real estate costs.

Assessing Corporate Real Estate Costs: What To Measure

As CREs seek to increase efficiency, they need a way to accurately and efficiently measure corporate real estate costs.

To understand true corporate real estate costs, you need to know how much space you lease and own, its value, the cost per square foot and the terms of lease agreements. But that’s the last step of a longer process. To effectively consolidate expenses and streamline operations, CREs need access to real-time data on their space and assets.

Using Workplace Software To Track Corporate Real Estate Costs

CREs know they need the right tools to measure space utilization effectively. They know that achieving flexibility in a real estate portfolio is next to impossible without space management software. Space management software isn’t just for the facilities management team anymore. It offers CREs the information they need in one platform.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has made it possible to capture real-time space utilization data from sensors, allowing workplace managers to get a more complete picture of how employees are using spaces and resources. With a SaaS-based space management solution, they have insight into every lease at every property. They can build and view dashboards and use analytics to make data-driven decisions about how best to manage the portfolio.

The Future: A Greater Focus on Workplace Flexibility

While boosting the efficiency of a workplace will always be essential for CREs, there has been a recent shift towards identifying ways to improve workplace agility.

Rather than concentrating on developing strategies to reduce space occupancy and redesign the workplace, CREs are focusing on how to “future-proof” their real estate portfolios in the face of economic uncertainty.

As part of this pursuit, corporate real estate managers have identified areas where achieving flexibility is most important: Workplace design, including implementation of activity-based working and co-working space environments, and shorter terms and flexible renewal options for property lease contracts.

To truly measure success, today’s CREs need to look to a new set of metrics that encompass the changing scope of the role and deliver greater accuracy. Accessing real-time data on these metrics through an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) paves the way for optimizing business operations and saving on costs.

To learn more about the facilities management metrics that matter most to CREs, check out our latest eBook, 8 New Facilities Management Metrics You Need to Know.