Corporate real estate management practice: Contrasts between financial and service provision priorities in corporate and government organizations

The adoption of strategic Corporate Real Estate (CRE) management has changed property's role in organisations. It is now seen as contributing to achieving the organisation's strategic goals rather than being a cost to the business. As part of an enquiry into competitive practices in the emergent field of Australian Corporate Real Estate (CRE) management, two focus groups were held to investigate practices and opinions and to identify current and future issues in strategic CRE management. Corporate organisations provided participants for the first group and local government organisations predominated in the other. Each group emphasised different aspects of strategic CRE management. The financial benefit from a corporation's property is contrasted with the service provision benefit derived from government property. Both organisation types employed a variety of methods to finance their property requirements. These conclusions have implications for service providers and property developers, as they provide insight into the procurement decision processes of client organisations.