How it works
It starts with an inventory of every site: size, lease terms and key dates, total occupancy cost, and measured use. Putting cost next to use shows which buildings are busy, which are half empty, and which cost the most per person who actually comes in.
Next, the team forecasts demand site by site from headcount plans, hybrid policy and measured peak attendance. It then models options, such as closing a floor, merging two nearby offices, moving a growing team into space already under lease, or using flexible space in a city without an office, and compares each on cost, capacity and disruption.
The chosen options are tied to lease events, because most savings can only be taken at an expiry, break or renewal. Optimization is not a one-off project: attendance, headcount and leases keep changing, so strong teams review the portfolio on a regular cycle.
How to measure it
- Cost per occupied seat by site: total occupancy cost divided by the average number of people who actually use the space.
- Peak-day occupancy by building and floor, to see where consolidation is safe.
- Time to each lease event, with the decision deadline for each.
- Space released or avoided after each change, in square feet and annual cost.
Examples
- A company with two half-used offices in the same city merges them into one at the next lease expiry and keeps a small coworking allowance for overflow.
- A growing team moves onto an underused floor of an existing building instead of the company taking new space.
Benchmarks
RCS England consolidated two floors into one and saved over £40,000 a year.
Kadence customer story: RCS England
Common mistakes
- Sizing a site to average occupancy; the peak day is what breaks capacity.
- Planning without the lease calendar, which produces savings that cannot be taken for years.
- Consolidating without checking team adjacency, which moves overcrowding to another floor.
- Treating optimization as a one-time cut rather than a regular review.
How Kadence helps
Kadence Workplace Insights reports attendance and occupancy by building and floor. SpaceOps uses that data as planning input for stack planning and scenario planning, with guided workflows to consolidate floors or find space for a team, and publishes the approved plan to live neighborhoods and desk assignments. Kadence Flex adds on-demand coworking desks and rooms through the LiquidSpace network for places where a lease no longer makes sense.
Scenario planning · SpaceOps · Corporate real estate
Frequently asked questions
What is portfolio optimization in corporate real estate?
It is the regular review of every building and lease an organization holds, to decide which to keep, grow, shrink, merge or exit. The goal is a portfolio sized to measured demand, in the right places, at a cost the business can justify.
How do you optimize an office portfolio for hybrid work?
Measure peak attendance by site and floor rather than relying on headcount, then model options against it: consolidating floors, merging nearby offices, sharing space between teams on different days, or using flexible space where demand is thin. Time each change to a lease event so the savings are real.
What data do you need to optimize a real estate portfolio?
For each site you need lease terms and dates, total occupancy cost, capacity by space type, and measured occupancy from check-ins or presence data. Add headcount forecasts and hybrid policy by team, so the plan reflects where demand is heading, not just where it is today.
How often should a real estate portfolio be reviewed?
Review it at least once a year and before every lease event, and whenever headcount, policy or strategy changes sharply. With live occupancy data, many teams track the portfolio continuously and run a deeper review when a site's use moves outside the range they planned for.
Related terms
- Corporate real estate (CRE) The buildings and leases a company occupies for its own operations, and the team that plans and manages them.
- Real estate footprint The total space an organization occupies, owned or leased, across all its offices, floors and sites.
- 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.
- Office consolidation Moving teams from several floors, buildings or sites into less space, then giving up or repurposing the space that is freed.
- Office right-sizing Matching the amount and type of office space to how people actually use it, based on measured demand rather than headcount.
Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed