Glossary · Space planning & real estate

What is corporate real estate?

Short answer

Corporate real estate (CRE) is the land, buildings and leased space an organization occupies to run its own business, and the internal function that plans and manages that property. CRE teams decide where the company has offices, how much space it holds and on what terms, balancing cost and flexibility against the needs of the people who use it.

Also called CRE, corporate real estate management, CREM.

How it works

Unlike a property investor, who owns buildings to earn rent, a corporate real estate team treats property as a cost of doing business and a tool for the workforce. Its portfolio can include a headquarters, regional offices, labs, stores or warehouses, held through a mix of owned buildings, long leases, subleases and flexible agreements.

The work runs on a cycle of lease events. Well before an expiry, break option or renewal, the team gathers demand data, models options such as renewing, relocating, consolidating or subleasing, negotiates with landlords through brokers, and then manages the fit-out and the move. Between events, it tracks occupancy, cost and building performance.

CRE usually sits close to finance, because real estate is one of the largest costs a company can control. It works with facilities management, which runs the buildings day to day, and with workplace teams, which shape how the space supports people. Hybrid work has moved CRE decisions away from headcount ratios and toward measured attendance and peak demand.

How to measure it

  1. Total occupancy cost per square foot, per seat and per employee, by site, so buildings can be compared on the same basis.
  2. Average and peak occupancy by building and floor, from check-ins or presence data rather than bookings alone.
  3. Space per person and seats per employee, against the targets your workplace strategy sets.
  4. Upcoming lease events by date, with the notice period each one needs, so no decision is made in a rush.

Examples

  • A CRE team with a headquarters lease expiring in three years models three options: renew the same space, give back two floors, or move to a smaller building closer to transit.
  • A company with offices in several cities uses attendance data to close an underused regional office and give those employees on-demand coworking space instead.

Common mistakes

  • Sizing the portfolio from headcount instead of measured attendance, which locks in space for people who rarely come in.
  • Starting too late: a lease event needs months of notice, and the data behind the decision needs time to collect.
  • Comparing buildings on rent alone, when service charges, utilities, fit-out and running costs can change the ranking.
  • Treating CRE as a finance exercise only and leaving out the teams who will use the space.

How Kadence helps

Kadence Workplace Insights reports attendance and occupancy by building, floor and team from check-ins, network presence detection by the Kadence Agent and other signals. SpaceOps, a Kadence add-on, uses that data for stack planning and side-by-side scenario planning, so a CRE team can compare consolidation or growth options before a lease event and publish the approved plan into live neighborhoods and desk assignments.

Corporate real estate · SpaceOps · Scenario planning

Frequently asked questions

What does a corporate real estate team do?

A corporate real estate team decides where the company has space, how much it holds and on what terms. It manages leases and owned buildings, plans renewals, relocations and consolidations, works with brokers and landlords, oversees fit-outs, and reports property cost and use to finance and leadership.

What is the difference between corporate real estate and commercial real estate?

Commercial real estate is property owned or developed to earn income from tenants. Corporate real estate is property a company occupies for its own operations. The same office tower can be commercial real estate for its landlord and corporate real estate for each company that leases a floor in it.

How is corporate real estate different from facilities management?

Corporate real estate is strategic and transactional: which buildings to hold, where, and on what lease terms. Facilities management is operational: keeping those buildings safe, clean, maintained and working every day. The two teams share data on occupancy and cost, and in smaller companies one person often covers both.

What workplace analytics do corporate real estate teams use?

They combine lease data and total occupancy cost with headcount plans and measured occupancy by building, floor and team. In hybrid organizations, attendance and peak-day data matter most, because headcount no longer predicts how much space people use. The strongest signals are check-ins and presence data, not bookings alone.

  • Real estate portfolio optimization Matching the buildings, floors and leases an organization holds to the space its people actually need.
  • Workplace strategy The plan that links how an organization works to the space, policies and tools it provides for work.
  • Lease event A lease date that forces or allows a decision, such as an expiry, a break option, a renewal option or a rent review.
  • Total occupancy cost Everything an organization spends to occupy a workplace in a year: rent, operating costs, utilities, services and fit-out.
  • Facilities management (FM) The function that keeps buildings and their services working: maintenance, cleaning, security, catering, energy, safety and space.

Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed

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