How are CRE leaders transforming their agendas in the age of COVID-19?

Corporate real estate (CRE) executives have been thrust into the limelight due to the coronavirus pandemic, serving on multi-disciplinary committees focused on managing the closing and gradual, phased reopening of work environments around the world. As we continue to learn more about the virus, it is clear that the implications for corporations, their employees, and the environments in which they work promise to be nothing short of transformational—at least for the foreseeable future.

As our industry navigates toward a new normal, CBRE, in partnership with CoreNet Global, embarked upon an annual study of management practices to assess how CRE leaders are thinking about the future—and how they are beginning to retool their strategies, teams, work environments, and portfolios to help their organizations emerge as strong as possible.

Study Overview

*Survey conducted from June 24 to July 22, 2020.

The CRE Leader’s Transformation Agenda

Health, safety, and environment now shares top billing with cost savings as leading priorities informing the CRE mission

Pre-COVID-19, CRE leaders most commonly reported enabling the core business (68%) and delivering quality service on time and budget (62%) as core to their mission.

In the COVID-19-era, the top two missions of CRE leaders are ensuring the health and safety of employees in the work environment (71%) and identifying/driving cost savings (71%).

Figure 1 of 18: How would you describe the primary mission and priorities of your CRE organization? Please select your top five in each column.

Looking beyond COVID-19, CRE leaders must adapt for the journey ahead. Explore how CRE leaders are approaching the “big reset,” along with other key takeaways, in greater depth in the full report. Key themes reshaping the CRE agenda outlined in this report include: