Real Estate Offers a Strategic Opportunity, But The C-Suite Want More
Leadership’s appreciation of real estate is growing, but there is significant potential for it to further support business strategy, according to CBRE’s inaugural C-Suite Perspectives report.
C-Suite Perspectives,which canvassed the views of 252 C-Suite leaders across Europe and the US, found that 94% of respondents see real estate as important to achieving core business objectives. According to the research, half of leaders see real estate becoming more important over the next three years, with Chief Executive Officers and Chief Operating Officers (63%) holding this view more strongly. At a sector level, 81% of manufacturing firms anticipate real estate will grow in importance, indicating that they are poised to manage their real estate assets much more proactively than they have in the past.
Most respondents (94%) believe that real estate plays a critical or very important role in shaping corporate culture and 72% said real estate is having a positive impact on achieving core objectives.
CBRE’s research found that leaders want their teams to have the best work environments. Elements that enable adaptability, resilience and continuity, such as increased lease flexibility, cost saving opportunities and better performance metrics, are top priorities.
To extract the most out of their real estate, leaders have become closer to it, with direct reporting lines for corporate real estate teams becoming the norm. Almost all (97%) respondents have a globally or regionally centralised real estate function with a reporting line into the C-Suite, of which 60% is direct.
More than two thirds (68%) of C-Suite leaders said direct reporting lines had been initiated since the pandemic, reflecting the increased alignment of real estate with supporting business transformation. There is a desire to optimise reporting structures further, with 77% of those who currently have an indirect reporting line to the C-Suite intending to switch to direct reporting in the future.
Despite widespread reconfiguration of reporting lines in recent years, C-Suite leaders still desire more influence over real estate decisions. 76% of respondents said that they want more personal influence or involvement, as real estate becomes key in supporting businesses growth plans and enabling business resilience.
Tasos Vezyridis, Head of Thought Leadership Europe, says “our research tells us that above all, leaders seek flexibility and want their real estate to be adaptable to the speed of business change. When viewed as an enabler instead of a cost, real estate can deliver places and spaces where teams and clients come together to generate ideas, innovate and achieve business growth.”
