SUCCINCT INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT {CREM}:

“THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE”

BY: BAKARE ISMAILA

smilebak2004@yahoo.com, smilebak2004@gmail.com, Mobile no: +2348034656467
{Estate Management Department, OAU, Ile-ife, Osun State (2010)}
Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Definitions of CRE & CREM
a. Definitions of CRE
b. Definitions of CREM
3.0 Perspectives of CREM
a. Business Perspective of CREM
- CREM Strategic Planning
- CREM Organization Structure
- CREM Performance Measurement
- CREM Risk Management and Assessement
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 References

1.0 Introduction
The rare concept of Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM} appears to be relatively new to
African countries, although past literatures have shown that this concept has been applied with
records of success in developed countries’ business organizations.
It is apparent from the ‘few known’ Nigerian studies on the concept {Oladokun, 2010.,
Njungbwen and Udo, 2010.}, that the practice of it in Nigerian corporations, is either in its
rudimentary stage, and/or not applied at all in some sectors of the nation.

This has been the main urge of the few researchers in this distinct real estate discipline in Nigeria
to make painstaking efforts to de-mystifying the concept of CREM, in its most pristine form, to
Nigerian students {e.g. In the university at Ife, and at Uyo}.

This article humbly addresses CREM in a way that will make it understandable to the laymen,
and particularly, to the practicing Estate Surveyors and Valuers, who are yet to understand it.

This little effort was also meant to elucidate the Applied Property Management {ESM 506} class
lecture on CREM at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria in 2010 by Mr. T. T.
Oladokun, in preparation of final year examination.

I hereby hope that the reader of this article, after reading it, will understand the basic concept of
Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}.
2.0 Definitions of CRE & CREM

a. DEFINITIONS OF CORPORATE REAL ESTATE {CRE}

1 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Zeckhauser and Silverman {1983} is
defined as “the land and buildings owned by companies not primarily in the real estate
business”.
2 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Brown et al {1993} applies to “properties
that are either owned or leased by firms to achieve corporate objectives”.
3 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Joroff et al. {1993}, is termed as the ‘fifth
resource’ of business corporations/organizations, after the traditional resources of
People, Technology, Information and Capital.
4 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Brueggeman and Fisher {2001} refers to
“the use of real estate as part of business operations and associated activities”.
5 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Brueggeman and Fisher {2001} refers to
“the use of real estate, as part of business operations and associated activities”.
6 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Oluwoye et al. {2001} refers to “real estate
owned by a corporation, also referred to as real property or physical facilities, or the
buildings and land held by large organizations, both public and private”.
7 Corporate Real Estate {CRE}, according to Liow and Nappi-Choulet {2007} refers to
“the land and buildings owned by companies not primarily in the real estate business”.

b. DEFINTIONS OF CORPORATE REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT {CREM}

The management of CRE is known as Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM} and was
defined by the following authors as shown below:
1. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Nourse {1990} refers to
“the management of real property assets for use in business other than real estate”.
2. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Brown et al {1993} is
“the optimum use of all real estate assets utilized by a corporation in pursuit of its
primary business mission”.
3. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Bon {1994}, “concerns the
Management of buildings and parcel of land at the disposal of private and public
organizations that are not primarily in the real estate business”.
4. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Bon et al {1998} refers to
“the management of property that is incidentally held, owned, or leased by an
organization to support its corporate mission”.
5. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Lindholm {2006},
“concerns every real estate and facilities related issue in public and private organization,
whose core business is not in real estate business”.
 6. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to According to Ilsjan
{2006}, “deals with the management of a corporation’s (enterprise’s) real estate portfolio,
in both, private and public sector organizations”.
7. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Lindholm {2006}
“concerns every real estate and facilities related issues in public and private
organizations, whose core business is not in real estate business”.
8. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Fuerst {2009} is
described as thus: “Most definitions of Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}
states that its core task is the active, solutions-oriented, strategic and operational
management of properties regardless of whether they are necessary for a company’s
business operations or not. Thus, CREM typically only comprises the real estate
management activities of non-real companies”.
9. Corporate Real Estate Management {CREM}, according to Dewulf et al. {2000} is
“the management of a corporation’s real estate portfolio by aligning the portfolio and
services to the needs of the core business {processes}, in order to obtain maximum added
value for the businesses and to contribute optimally to the overall performance of the
corporation”.

Inferably, from the above definitions, CREM could be referred to as “the strategic
management of Real estate held by Corporation/Organizations, be it Public or Private, in pursuit
of its primary business mission. CREM could referred to as PuREM {Public Real Estate
Management} or PrREM {Private Real Estate Management}”.

3.0 Perspectives of CREM

Liow and Nappi-Choulet {2007} submits that “Current CRE practices suggest at least four
important areas in the light of a business management focus: CRE Strategic Planning, CRE
Organization Structure, CRE Business Performance Measurement and CRE Risk Management
and Assessment.”

a. Business Perspective of CREM

- CREM Strategic Planning
CRE Strategic Planning facilitates the development of CRE asset management (CREAM)
strategy that supports the overall business strategy {Liow and Nappi-Choulet, 2007}.
This entails the development of CRE strategies, following from and linking to the overall
Corporate/Business strategies of the company. This linkage of strategies is expected to bring
about operation decisions of the corporation’s real estate that will bring about added-value to the
core business of the corporation.
CREM strategies are supposed to be formed after fully understanding the corporate strategies of
the company, and that is why the CREM department head ought to operate at the board level
where he gets acquainted with the overall business strategies. This will largely help him in the
formulation and implementation of CRE strategies.
CREM STRATEGIES
• According to Nourse and Roulac {1993}

Capturing the Real Estate Value creation of the Business

Occupancy Cost Minimisation

Flexibility

Facilitating Production, Operations, Service Delivery

Facilitating Managerial Process and Work Knowledge

Promoting Marketing Message

Promoting Sales and Selling Process

Promoting Human Resources Objectives

• According to Lindholm {2008}

Increasing Value of Assets

Promoting Marketing and Sale

Increasing Innovations

Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Increasing Productivity

Increasing Flexibility

Reducing Cost

• According to Ali et al. {2008}

Corporate Social Responsibility

• According to Rogers {1999}

Strategic Positioning

Operational Effectiveness

• According to Oi {2010}

Cost Reduction; {which relates to, ………….Property Management}

Workplace Strategy; {which relates to, ………….Facility Management}

Portfolio Optimisation; {which relates to, ………….Asset Management}

- CREM Organization Structure

CRE Organization structure that allows the effective implementation of the CREAM strategy
{Liow and Nappi-Choulet, 2007}. The structure of the corporate real estate function concerns
who, where and how decisions about corporate real estate are made within an organization
{Gibson & Barkham, 2001}.
In other words, the organization structure of CREM simply refers to the organization of the
CREM department within a business corporation.
The pioneering authors of CREM {Zeckhauser and Silverman, 1983}, advocated that the
CREAM structure can be; Decentralized (where management of real estate is the responsibility
of each product department within the business organisation), Centralized (where all real estate
decisions for the firm are made in a centralized department within the business organization), or
a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary (where control of some or all of the company’s real estate is
transferred to a subsidiary of the business organization, e.g. like the Intercontinental Homes and
Briscoe Properties is to Intercontinental Bank and Briscoe Company respectively in Nigeria).
An alternative is to classify the CREAM structure into profit centers and cost centers (Veale,
1989). Moreover, profit centers appear to be aligned with wholly owned subsidiaries while cost
centers appear to be aligned with centralized and decentralized departments (Rutherford and
Stone, 1989).

- CREM Performance Measurement

CREM Performance Measurement simply refers to the assessment and determination of success
of CREM, i.e. Assessing and Determining the contribution of the company’s real estate to the
entire organisation as a result of effective and proactive CREM.
An effective CRE performance measurement system helps identify areas of deficiencies and set
corrective actions into motion.
Importantly, CRE managers needs to identify the Critical Factors Influencing the CREAM
performance {Veale, 1989}:-

• Presence of a Formal and Organised Real Estate Unit Operation.

• Use of Management Information Systems for Real Estate Operation.
• Use of Real Estate Accounting methods.
• Frequency of Reporting Real Estate Information to Senior Management.
• Exposure of Real Estate executives to overall Corporate Strategy and Planning.
• Availability of Information and Methods for Evaluating Real Estate Performance and Use
and the Performance of Real Estate Assets relative to overall Corporate Assets.
Business Management Concepts and Analytical Tools applied to CREAM Performance
Measurement
• Benchmarking
• Balanced Scorecard
• Building-In-Use
• Post Occupancy Evaluation Technique {POET}
• Performance Mark

- CREM Risk Management and Assessement

CRE risk management strategies must be integrated with the overall corporate risk profile. From
a strategic perspective, corporate managers need to understand the types of risks associated with
an organization’s CRE portfolio, assess the intensity of these risks within the corporate context
and devise appropriate structure and strategies to avoid, insure, transfer, hedge or diversify the
risks as appropriate. At least three major categories of the CRE risks are relevant. Financial risk
relates the impact of CRE on both the P& L statement and the balance sheet. Some examples of
these risks include reversion risk in lease/purchase decisions, liquidity risk, default risk and
interest rate risk {Liow and Nappi-Choulet, 2007}.
CRE ownership is also systematically exposed to the property market risk as any other property
investors, quantified in term of volatility of real estate returns. Finally, business risk is linked
back to the business. These risks include changes in the business condition, the firm’s
competitive market position, the cyclicality of demand and the demand elasticity that will affect
business performance. Consequently, the requirements for business real estate are affected{Liow
and Nappi-Choulet, 2007}.

4.0 Conclusion

The relatively new nature of the contemporary strategic Corporate Real Estate Management
makes it a worthwhile area to be researched on. The crux of the international bandwagon
approach of advanced countries towards Corporate Real Estate Management is to tap from the
neglected real estate resource of corporations.
Proactive measures towards corporation’s real estate is a sure way to add value to the core
business of the organization, and a source of succor in the problems of economic fluctuations to
corporate organizations {Bakare. 2010}.
5.0 References
Ali, Z. {2008}: “Corporate Real Estate: Another Real Estate Area”. Integration & Dissemination, pp. 8-10.
Ali, Z., McGreal, S., Adair, A. and Webb, J. R. {2008}: “Corporate Real Estate Strategy: A Conceptual
Overview”. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 2008.
Bakare, I. {2010}: “An Appraisal of Corporate Real Estate Management Practice in the Hospitality Industry in
Nigeria {A Case Study of Hotels in Lagos State}”. Unpublished thesis Submitted to the Department of
Estate Management, Faculty of Environmental Design and Management, Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. December, 2010.
Bon, R. {1994}: “Ten Principles of Corporate Real Estate Management Performance”. Facilities Vol. 12 No. 5,
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Breitenstein, O., May, A. and Eschenbaum, F. {1998}: “The Components of Corporate Real Estate
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