CBRE Report on Real Estate Back Office of the Future

Real estate asset managers, owners and developers are transforming the way they manage their back offices, increasingly outsourcing their accounting and administration functions to third-party specialists.

To explore why, we turned to 16 top experts and practitioners in real estate administration, discussing their perspectives on and experiences with using third parties for property, fund and project accounting and administration.

Every real estate organization is focused on strategies to identify, acquire, operate and, eventually, dispose of assets.

Property, fund and project accounting and administration traditionally remained out of the spotlight, though owners and managers invested considerable time, attention and resources in their back office operations and technology platforms.

Now, as real estate asset managers, owners and developers transform the way they run their businesses, accounting and administration functions increasingly are being outsourced to third-party specialists to reduce operational complexity, capitalize on rapidly evolving technology platforms, capture more data and information, and enhance risk management.

This transformation is driven by:

1. The institutionalization of commercial real estate investing
2. The evolution in the real estate asset base
3. A massive desire for detailed data from investors and asset managers
4. The influx of new technologies and the digitalization of administration
5. An emergence of new players touting a variety of fund vehicles
6. A rethink of strategy and back-office operations