Since 2020 there's been a huge increase in conversations in the Property community such as:
- The workplace is now a destination.
- Employee experience drives retention.
- Real estate must be productive.
- Offices are strategic assets.
And yet in-house property teams remain lean, often static, and rarely represented at board level. There’s a disconnect here. Real estate is typically the second or third largest cost base in an organisation. It directly influences productivity, collaboration, brand perception and ESG outcomes.
But structurally? It’s still treated like a shared service.
The Default Lever: Cost
Despite all the rhetoric around workplace transformation, the dominant trend remains:
- Outsource.
- Consolidate.
- Reduce headcount.
- Deliver short-term savings.
Larger FM Outsource Partners like Mitie, ISS and CBRE deliver scale and operational expertise extremely well, there's no doubt. But outsourcing operational delivery is not the same as owning strategy.
When in-house capability becomes too thin:
- Portfolio thinking becomes reactive.
- Workplace strategy follows cost cycles.
- Vendor management replaces long-term vision.
Meanwhile, IT, HR and Procurement continue to expand influence at board level.
The Market Tells Its Own Story
From a recruitment perspective, the contrast is clear. In-house real estate opportunities remain limited and often publicly advertised on LinkedIn rather than strategically mapped or proactively searched.
Compare that to the movement in HR or IT leadership — where hiring remains consistent and succession planning is active.
That disparity reflects how organisations still prioritise functions.
And priorities drive investment.
The Risk
If workplace truly underpins talent strategy, culture and productivity — why isn’t in-house real estate structurally positioned alongside those conversations?
You cannot expect a workplace to perform strategically if its leadership is operationally positioned.
Final Thought
The organisations that will win over the next decade will not simply outsource more efficiently.
They will:
- Retain strong internal real estate leadership.
- Align property strategy with workforce strategy.
- Give workplace leaders a seat at the decision-making table.
The rhetoric was right. But the structural follow-through hasn’t happened yet.
And the talent market reflects that reality every day.
