Incentives in Swedish commercial real estate companies: the property manager function

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify factors on the property management level for analysing incentives for an effective property management with a focus on organising it in-house. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on an interview study of 11 firm representatives from the Swedish commercial real estate sector with in-house property management. Findings The study concludes that the property management organisation in the in-house setting is governed in an informal way, with a large portion of “freedom with responsibilities” setup instead of regulations. Research limitations/implications The research in this paper is limited to the Swedish commercial real estate sector. Practical implications The insights into the paper regarding how decision makers create incentives for the property management organisation can provide inspiration to design incentives for effort. Originality/value It provides an insight regarding how the commercial real estate industry prioritises different work tasks and how incentives are created to enable effort.