Public Real Estate

Managing public real estate presents governments with an increasingly difficult set of conflicting demands. Public real estate is primarily seen as a facility to support the primary processes of governments. This means that the buildings need to provide adequate working environments for the civil servants. However, the wishes and needs to the users are not the only aspect managers of public real estate must pay attention to. They also have to keep the political aspects of public real estate in mind. The political aspects are important because governments often see public real estate as a means to achieve their political goals in areas such as urban redevelopment, employment, and sustainability. For example, public property can be used as a catalyst to revitalise certain under-developed locations. In addition to meeting users' requirements and overall governmental policies, the financial constraints within which governments have to operate force the public real estate manager to consider the financial aspects of public real estate. It is not simply a matter of workplace costs. General budgeting constraints may prevent the introduction of better, cost-efficient, alternatives. This book describes the field of tension and the strategic choices that public real estate managers are facing. It discusses strategies and tools to organize and manage public real estate. The authors illustrate their arguments with a wide variety of interesting cases.