News on 31 January 2001
‘Real estate is only part of the working environment organisations require,’ and ‘The primary aim of real estate in organisations is to provide appropriate working environments for the least overall cost’. These conclusions from the latest Annual Survey of Corporate Real Estate Practices may seem less than startling but they underline the shift in thinking by corporate real estate professionals who now see property as a business resource pure and unfortunately not so simple.
The annual corporate real estate management (CREM) survey
is undertaken by Johnson Controls in conjunction with the University
of Reading (UK). It aims to identify how the role of the corporate real
estate executive is changing and what skills are considered to be crucial
for the future. It also provides international comparisons of practices
and trends in the workplace.
For the eight years the survey has been running, four skills have always
been rated top by respondents – strategic planning, portfolio management,
knowledge of the organisation’s business or activity and negotiation
or deal making.
The survey is sent to corporate real estate executives,
non-CRE executives within corporate real estate organisations and real
estate service providers. Unfortunately the upward trend in response
was reversed last year with only 190 respondents, compared with 334
in 1999.
For the first time questions were included about the impact of the internet
on corporate real estate. Most organisations thought that “internet
based information systems will make the management and servicing of
global portfolios easier.”
However the various regions viewed the impact of the internet differently. North America thought that “the internet is causing revolutionary change to the structure and practices of the property industry”. The UK and Australia thought that “E-procurement is only useful for buying commodity products and services and not for anything customised”. Rest of Europe and Rest World ranked highly that “Internet based information systems will make the management and servicing of global portfolios easier”.
