Corporate real estate strategies: the Nigerian experience

Purpose – The paper aims to contribute to the empirically scarce literature on corporate real estate management (CREM) strategies by providing meaningful insights on the different strategies likely to contribute to business performance in a developing country like Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data collected using questionnaire administered on property managers of the 105 business organisations in the list of registered companies with the Nigerian Stock Exchange were used for the study. The questionnaire elicited information on the real estate holding pattern and the adopted strategies for acquiring and managing real estate assets. The data collected were analysed using percentages, mean and proportion method. Findings – The study established that 41 per cent of the organisations were public organisations. Others were private companies (31 per cent), government departments (18 per cent) and multi-nationals (10 per cent). The result indicated that 31.8 per cent had no CREM strategy. Strategies used were: cost reduction (18.75 per cent), facilitate production (20.17 per cent), flexibility (15.5 per cent), promote human resource objectives (10.86 per cent), promote the marketing message (4.33 per cent), promote sales and selling delivery (18.67 per cent), facilitate managerial process and knowledge (7.5 per cent) and capture real estate value (6.5 per cent). The study concluded that CREM is a useful tool that the organisations can make effective use of to improve their performance. Research limitations/implications – Limiting the scope of the study to the perception of the respondents could reflect an element of bias and might pose a great challenge to the representativeness. Also, the use of closed question questionnaire may limit the validity of the results. Practical implications – The study has major implications on business performance in Nigeria. There is the need for corporations to reappraise their real estate strategy and realign it with their corporate objective. There is also the need for Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers to train its members for contemporary business requirements. Originality/value – The paper is a useful guide to corporate real estate managers in developing countries towards using real estate strategies to minimize the overall cost of their companies.