Creating a strategy framework for investor real estate management

Introduction

Real estate is an asset class that requires intensive management during the entire life cycle of the investment. Properties need, for example, technical management, leasing activities, transactions and strategic management of the whole property portfolio (Hoesli and Lekander, 2008). At the same time, the industry investment landscape is constantly changing with varying lease terms, yields and other key investment parameters (Poleg, 2020). The latest megatrends, including ESG, energy efficiency and digitalization have further increased the demand for strategic management of the real estate assets. Due to the intensiveness of the property management and the challenge of achieving the long-term goals, the practice of strategic management can provide substantial benefits for real estate investors.

When operating properties as investment assets, the property owners and investment managers need to also decide upon an operational management strategy (McAllister, 2020). Managerial strategy and effort are needed in portfolio and investment management, but also in asset management and property management. Generally speaking, portfolio management focuses on evaluating, monitoring and reporting on the portfolio performance while investment management focuses on implementing an investment strategy by identifying opportunities, considering allocation and performing investments (Roulac, 1996). The aim of the asset management is to improve the risk-adjusted performance of the assets by modifying their legal, physical, usage, financial and occupational structures, as well as their attributes. The asset management includes tasks and functions, such as transaction execution, leasing strategy, asset marketing strategy, reporting to fund manager, co-operation and monitoring of property manager, budget control, procurement of specialist services and project management of capex (McAllister, 2020). Property management, in turn, focuses on the day-to-day property operations and maintenance, leasing and tenant relations, technical risk assessment and financial audits (Roulac, 1996). However, the boundaries between these functions are not clear or stable and the content of each function may vary depending on the country and even different companies regard them differently.

Reviewing recent literature, it seems that strategic management is a much more prominent perspective in corporate real estate (CRE) than investor-based real estate management research. The CRE and facility management (FM) research has produced several strategic management frameworks, often refereed as Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM), to help organizations improve their long-term performance and customer satisfaction (Haynes, 2012; Lindholm and Nenonen, 2006; O’Mara, 1999; Roulac, 2001; Shiem-shin Then et al., 2014; Heywood and Arkesteijn, 2018). Researchers have proceeded in solving how the corporate strategy and real estate management strategy should be aligned and what the role of the real estate is in supporting the core business of the companies (Hoesli, 2016). The approach in these studies has been all-inclusive to gain a holistic understanding of strategic management in its concerned context.

The research, from the investor perspective, has mainly focused on the investment and portfolio strategies considering the diversification issues (Eichholtz et al., 1995; Hoesli and Lekander, 2008; Lekander, 2015). Moreover, decision-making on outsourcing and operational management has gained a lot of attention (Palm, 2013, 2018; McAllister, 2020). Despite the research conducted on investment and portfolio strategies, the same holistic approach that has been introduced in CREM, which would also encompass all the themes that are relevant in real estate investment business, is lacking.

In this research, “investors” refers to companies operating in real estate investment business, i.e., business environment where these companies that primarily recognize themselves as real estate investor and owners, operate and compete. It refers also to companies that have other asset classes as well, but the purpose of owning real estate assets is clearly investment-oriented. This study presents the concept of Investor Real Estate Management (IREM). IREM aims to describe the investor-based view on real estate management in contrast to the corporate real estate perspective and user focus of CREM. IREM not only focuses on investment management or real estate portfolio strategy but also on the operational level of real estate management including asset and property management. The difference between the IREM and CREM concepts and viewpoints is illustrated in Figure 1, which has been adapted from Kämpf-Dern (2009).

The aim of this paper is twofold: First, this work provides an extension to CRE literature by showing that some of the most robust theories in CRE are also adaptable to real estate investment and seem to provide value for their strategic management. Second, this paper contributes to real estate investment literature by providing a well-founded and empirically contested strategic management framework, the IREM framework, for identifying strategic themes on which real estate investors form their strategies.

The first iteration of the framework is based on the existing literature. It is validated through an interview study focusing on the senior management of real estate investment companies. The results support the framework, although some aspects are reiterated. The findings indicate that real estate investors base their strategies on eight strategic themes which are “Innovation”, “ESG”, “Marketing and sales”, “Financial management”, “Leasing management and tenant satisfaction”, “Competitive environment and portfolio management”, “Outsourcing and strategic partnerships” and “Cost and operation optimization”.

This research starts with literature review on strategic management and strategy related research in real estate management. The literature review is followed by a study of the publicly available documents on strategic objectives of global and national real estate investors in Finland. The empirical part was carried out as qualitative interview study of ten major real estate investors operating on the Finnish real estate markets. The data were gathered by interviewing the senior professionals in the real estate investment companies. The data gathering process included both open and thematic interviews.

Strategic management in real estate

Strategic management is a widely examined research field which has developed over time. Jemison (1981) defined strategic management as the process by which general managers of complex organizations develop and utilize strategy to align their organization’s competences with the opportunities and constraints present in their environment. Kirchhoff and Kirchhoff (1980), and Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) stated that the main objective of a corporation is to increase the wealth of the stakeholders by revenue growth as well as short-term profitability and the role of the corporate level strategies is to support this purpose. Subsequently, the strategic management research has brought broader aspects to the strategic decision-making process of the companies. Some of the organizations might still lean on the traditional resource-based views and focus on maximizing their wealth, but even a more complex set of influences, such as corporate social responsibility, can operate during the decision process (Mintzberg et al., 2002). Moreover, it is also questioned whether maximizing the wealth of the stakeholders is the only purpose of the company and whether the companies should additionally consider the interest of the society in wider perspective (Stout, 2012). Furthermore, more recent literature has challenged the traditional idea of sustained competitive advantage (Porter, 1985) stating that the competitive advantage is often transitory and short-lived. Transient competitive advantage emphasizes the need to continuously create new advantages through innovative strategies to compete in the fast-paced business world (McGrath, 2013). Further, new advantages can be found by identifying unexplored market areas, the so-called blue oceans, where a business can sustain a competitive advantage for a longer period than in the existing markets (Kim and Mauborgne, 2014).

Roulac (1996) formed the strategic framework for real estate markets and described the processes, linkages and decisions for the participants in it, including the owners of the properties, but similar encompassing approaches have been lacking. Nevertheless, holistic strategic management research has been emphasized in CREM research, which can be understood by the very nature of CREM. The primary aim of CREM is to enhance the performance of the client organization through the alignment of the corporate real estate strategy with the corporate strategy (Haynes, 2012; Lindholm and Nenonen, 2006; O’Mara, 1999; Roulac, 2001; Shiem-shin Then et al., 2014; Heywood and Arkesteijn, 2017). There have been multiple attempts to model CREM alignment. Heywood and Arkesteijn (2018) analyzed 20 different CREM models and examined how completely these models consider the different elements and components of the alignment process. They noticed that the models rarely identify previous modelling efforts and that it is not widely known in the field how these models compare. Seemingly, the aim and the approach of these studies has been diverse. Haynes (2008, 2012) provided a model to explain the alignment by introducing eight elements that must be considered to ensure the alignment with business needs. The outcome of the successful alignment in this model was improved productivity and performance. Shiem-shin Then et al. (2014) divided the alignment to four quadrants and proposed that the alignment appears between the business needs and the facility management resources and facility management solutions and again between facility managements services and facility management resources and facility management solutions. Cooke et al. (2019) noticed that the process of CRE realignment should be dynamic and continual as the new business strategies require flexible resources although such flexibility does not exist.

Lindholm (Lindholm and Leväinen, 2006; Lindholm and Nenonen, 2006; Lindholm, 2008) aimed to identify and create tools for measuring the success of CREM hence creating a framework for identifying CREM strategies. Lindholm’s findings have been widely referenced (Haynes, 2012; Appel-Meulenbroek and Haynes, 2014; Appel-Meulenbroek et al., 2015; Appel-Meulenbroek et al., 2018) as well as redeveloped and discussed in CREM and FM research. The framework was later adjusted by adding sustainability in the framework (Gibler and Lindholm, 2012; Jensen et al., 2013). Gibler and Lindholm (2012) also noticed that the strategies included in the framework may need to be adjusted over time to account for changing priorities and new technological developments. Appel-Meulenbroek and Haynes (2014) further developed the model and divided the proposed CREM strategies to exchange and use value strategies. The criticism, instead, has pointed out that the framework is not all-encompassing since it does not include certain aspects of the alignment, such as strategic triggers, external business drivers and plan for alignment, although these aspects are concerned in the text of these studies (Heywood and Arkesteijn, 2017, 2018). Lindholm’s framework presents maximizing shareholder wealth as the overriding objective of the business, which has been challenged since then. The shareholders are important, but a wider range of influences are present in businesses (Cooke et al., 2019, 2021).

Developing the IREM framework

The IREM framework is inspired by the CRE literature. The framework is presented in Figure 2. It includes eight propositions for the strategic themes. Five of these propositions are adapted from Lindholm’s CREM framework and the remaining three are new propositions based on the real estate investments literature. All eight propositions are introduced in more detail after Figure 2. The original CREM Framework also included actions for each strategy at the operational level, but they are excluded from the IREM Framework in Figure 2. Later, in the adjusted IREM framework, operational level actions are presented based on the results from the interviews.

Since the IREM framework is adapted from CREM framework, its foundations are on the traditional strategic management fundaments and it includes the same strategic goals of a corporation that Kirchhoff and Kirchhoff (1980) and Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) stated; revenue and profitability growth. However, the corporate purpose in the framework is adjusted from their view of maximizing the wealth of stakeholders to maximizing the value to the stakeholders to consider a wider range of drivers for the business. The framework also includes an additional strategic goal, future growth, to consider values and other strategic aims that organizations might have and the strategic decisions that are not linked only directly to profitability or revenue growth. These decisions could be, for example, marketing or ESG related investments and actions that aim to the competitive advantage in the future but cannot be clearly justified with financial outcomes in short or even mid-term. Sustainability business innovations can be a subcomponent of the intangible assets of the company that generate future growth (Kajander et al., 2012).

P.1 Innovation: Innovation can be defined as the process of applying an idea or invention into practice (Tidd and Bessant, 2013). For the purposes of the framework, it is equally relevant whether these ideas are new to the world, sector, or organization. While innovation as a concept encompasses everything from incremental improvements in the existing solutions to discontinuous leaps to the completely new offerings, it is the latter that is of more interest here. Discontinuous innovation is more complex and riskier, but also potentially more rewarding, and, therefore, it has been argued to be central to a company’s strategy for future growth (Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Assink, 2006). Innovation is part of the CREM framework with slight reason to doubt its relevance to IREM. In CREM, innovation is an aspect of organizational performance supported by real estate (Curvelo Magdaniel et al., 2018), but in IREM it is more of a strategy to create and maintain value for investors (Kauko, 2019). The motivation for strategic consideration of innovation by investors is both internal and external. Innovation is known to create value to innovators in the real estate sector (Kajander et al., 2012) but it is also required due to the pressure from new technologies (Poleg, 2020).

P.2 ESG: The ESG has gained growing attention in the real estate industry and among the investors but also in research even if not from the strategic perspective. Nevertheless, growing public awareness of the sustainability related issues, as well as governmental action worldwide, have also forced investors to change their way of thinking (Geiger et al., 2013). Warren-Myers (2012a, b) studied sustainability from the real estate management perspective and stated that even though sustainability has become common in the real estate industry, sustainability was still focusing on the cost minimization strategies. They stated that the linkage between the market valuation of the properties and sustainability has been researched but the correlation has been hard to evidence. However, positive indication on value creation by the impact of renewable on-site energy production and green building certifications has been found since then (Leskinen et al., 2020a, b). Furthermore, the tenants are expecting sustainability and the research from the previous decade indicates that the eco-certified properties can produce even higher rental rates (Sanderson and Edwards, 2014). The ESG, or sustainability, was one of the real estate strategies in the CREM framework and it has been researched rather widely in the field of CREM (Junnila, 2004; Ellison and Sayce, 2007; Heywood and Kenley, 2008; Masalskyte et al., 2014; Collins and Junghans, 2015).

P.3 Tenant satisfaction: The investors can reach increased tenant satisfaction and higher occupancy rates focusing on the strategies that consider the requirements of the tenants on location, costs, functionality of properties, flexibility of space and lease terms, as well as the leasing process (Sanderson and Edwards, 2014). Even evidence regarding the properties with higher tenant satisfaction containing a greater total return than the sector average has been presented (Palm, 2013). Sanderson and Edwards (2014) studied tenant satisfaction and what strategies should be employed in the real estate management for the maximum benefit for the property owner. The locations were still seen as the top consideration for the tenants and, therefore, the owners must manage their portfolios accordingly; trading properties where necessary and employing property-specific strategies elsewhere. The strategic choices to improve tenant satisfaction included providing sufficient services depending on the property type, taking care of the sustainability requirements, managing properties professionally and keeping them in good condition. The CREM framework did not include tenant satisfaction as a real estate strategy, but it included employee satisfaction which can be considered understandable, while the viewpoint to the users of the properties is different in CREM and in IREM.

P.4 Marketing and sales: Promoting marketing and sales was one of the themes included already in the CREM framework and it referred to selecting locations and providing spaces that attract customer and support the business. It could be justifiable to assume that these aspects are relevant also for the real estate investors when they are trying to attract tenants to their spaces. Therefore, this strategic theme was selected to be one of the propositions also in the IREM framework. The theme was also supported by Roulac’s (1996) research where marketing of the real estate funds for financiers was mentioned as one of the essential tasks for the property owner. However, the target and how it is marketed may differ depending on the investor type.

P.5 Strategic partnerships: Strategic partnerships were not included in the CREM framework but it is assumed to be a relevant theme in IREM based on the research by Palm (2013, 2017, 2018). Investors can choose to outsource or insource the different operational management functions or to adopt different solutions for different markets, sectors, or functions. These outsourcing decisions consider fund management, asset management, as well as property management tasks and functions. In practice, most of the outsourcing decisions are hybrid, between the two extremes of fully insourced and fully outsourced operational functions. A range of different operating models for managing real estate investment portfolios are used and the solutions tend to depend on the property investor type, whether they are specialist real estate investors, multi-asset owners, or institutional investors (McAllister, 2020). Palm (2017) underlined the strategic decision considering how real estate investors organize their property management and leasing activities together with how outsourced managers should be incentivized to achieve the strategic goals of the property investor.

P.6: Competitive environment: This proposition was not included in the CREM framework, and it refers to the strategic decisions that the investors must make when they consider what property types, locations and risk reward ratios they favor and accept while performing transactions. In other words, in which market segments the investor has decided to compete and how. Several studies are available concerning the real estate portfolio strategy and investment strategies including the role of the real estate assets as a part of the total investment portfolios. Eichholtz et al. (1995) studied diversification by property type and region within a real estate portfolio in the UK and the USA Roulac (1996) listed the investment policy, allocation and geographic market selection as the top decisions for the real estate investor. Hoesli et al. (2004) studied the role of the real estate assets as a portfolio diversifier and continued their research concerning the investment and portfolio strategy by comparing direct real estate investments to real estate securities and stocks in Europe (Hoesli and Lekander, 2008). Lekander (2015) has continued this diversification research further. The investment strategies can also be understood from the risk perspective. The classification categorizes investment to classes “core”, “value add” and “opportunistic” according to its development potential and risk character (Poleg, 2020).

P.7 Value of assets: Value of assets was one the themes in the CREM framework and it is considered as one of the strategic theme propositions also to the IREM framework. The total investment returns in real estate compose from two value creation channels namely appreciation and income returns (Young et al., 1995; Pivo and Fisher, 2010). Superior appreciation can be gained if incomes grow faster than previously anticipated, or if faster income growth or slower depreciation is expected in the future. Income return is the ratio of income to the property value at a given point in time and it is analogous to the capitalization rate. If the property is expected to produce higher future incomes, it could produce higher appreciation (Pivo and Fisher, 2010).

P.8 Cost reduction: Poleg (2020) stated that the investors must improve their operational effectiveness by efficient acquisitions and rethinking the finances of their portfolios. They claimed that for property management operations this effectiveness means reducing the maintenance costs and negotiating better leases with tenants. This theme was included in the CREM framework as it has a direct and immediate impact on the financial performance of the company (Lindholm et al., 2006). However, there are also arguments that the perspective should be wider. Effectiveness and productivity is argued to require consideration of both outputs and inputs together with their relative change (Cooke et al., 2021).

Research design and methodology

Results and discussion

This research aimed to identify the strategic themes on which real estate investors base their strategies. The present study introduced the propositions for these strategic themes in the form of IREM framework which was, together with the propositions, based on previous research from CREM and real estate investment research. The aim of the interviews was to identify possible support for the IREM framework as a whole and for each individual proposition separately. The summary of the results for the propositions is presented in Table 2. This table illustrates the support for each strategic theme proposition in open and thematic interviews. The support is evaluated to be either low, medium, or high. The reported level of the support is based on the number of the interviews in which the theme is mentioned, as well as on an assessment of the importance interviewees give it. The table also includes examples of the tasks and decisions that were mentioned in the interviews concerning each proposition.

The research design and the selection of interviewees seemed to have some impact on the appearances of the themes in the interviews. The fact that some of the interviewees did not mention a specific theme on open discussion, does not univocally mean that the theme is not relevant for the company. Similarly, it would be misleading to assume that the interviewees could list all strategic themes in the interview sessions. The time for the interview is limited and the discussion easily concentrated on certain topics taking the focus from the other, possibly relevant, themes. Furthermore, also the position of the interviewee and the personal interests might have steered the discussion to certain topics. Next, each proposition is discussed separately in more detail and presented with descriptive quotes from the interviews.

Conclusions

A holistic approach to the strategic real estate management has enjoyed popularity in CREM research, while similar research has been lacking in the field of IREM. This study supports the idea of using theories and the tools from CREM research to analyze IREM activities. This approach offers an opportunity to understand the strategic management practices in IREM and extends the applicability of existing CREM theories to IREM. The advances of CREM research, especially the understanding of the transient competitive advantages in the business environment, can offer a valuable new insight for the IREM discipline and provide a more solid theoretical basis for the strategic management in the future.

The objective of this paper was to identify the strategy frame and the strategic themes on which real estate investors base their strategies. The goal was to identify the framework as well as to understand, in practice, how real estate investors consider their strategies. The research design consisted of two main parts: 1) formulating propositions based on the existing literature and 2) attempting to validate the propositions through a qualitative interview study with major real estate owners in Finland.

Real estate investors base their strategies on eight strategic themes which are “Innovation”, “ESG”, “Marketing and sales”, “Financial management”, “Leasing management and tenant satisfaction”, “Competitive environment and portfolio management”, “Outsourcing and strategic partnerships”, as well as “Cost and operation optimization”. The introduced IREM framework includes these eight strategic themes and three strategic goals, profitability growth, revenue growth and future growth. We argue that the third goal, future growth, is needed as an additional goal, since maximizing the wealth of the stakeholders is no longer sufficient to describe all the drivers that real estate investors have accelerating their strategies.

The presented IREM framework could provide a systemic basis for real estate investors to create a real estate management strategy or to evaluate their current strategy. It can help demonstrate and evaluate which strategic themes and actions matter the most to achieve their strategic goals. The framework could also benefit the strategic partners of real estate investors, e.g., property and asset managers, to understand their customers and the differences in their strategies better.

Limitations and further research

The initial framework of this research was adapted from the CREM framework that has been credited but also challenged in the literature. The IREM framework is based on the same theoretical grounds and, therefore, it would be necessary to study how the results of this study relate to the more recent strategic management theories. Sharing similar research aims, the CREM framework still offered a useful base to build on the new theory and to identify the strategies in the field of IREM. The framework was adjusted after all the interviews were conducted. An iterative process that had adjustments after each interview, could have given an opportunity to correct some of the defects on the framework instantly. It could have probably provided additional support for these corrections and for some of the other adjustments that were made in the end to the framework.

The findings in this study can be generalized to a certain level but the study has some recognized limitations. Even though the propositions got promising support in this study, it should be noticed that the list of the strategic themes might not be exhaustive. The research was only focusing on the companies in the Finnish real estate investment market, which is a rather small real estate investment environment that has become international and professional only in the last decades and it has several local characteristics. Yet, the market is well-functioning, and the sample represents a variety of national and international real estate investors and the support for the propositions was rather strong. However, additional testing of the framework in different real estate markets and environments would be needed for further generalizability. The selected sampling aimed to find a versatile set of cases that enables sufficient generalization of the results but focusing on a specific investor type could have given stronger results within a specific real estate investor category.

This study offers several interesting opportunities for future research. It would be beneficial to examine what tasks and decisions in each strategic theme would support profitability growth, revenue growth and future growth the best. This research could also benefit from further investigation of future growth and how investors conceive the time horizon, the content and concept of future growth. This study did not aim to compare the strategies of the investors, which could open an opportunity to take this research further to analyze the differences in strategies and to understand the reasons for different strategic decisions. This research path could benefit from focusing on certain real estate investor category or comparing different investor categories. Furthermore, it would be illustrative to understand how strategic themes are linked and connected to each other on the decision-making level.