From cost to investment: how to turn property expenditure into value

In recent years, the labour market has undergone an unprecedented transformation: hybrid spaces, agile working, growing expectations and increasingly stringent ESG targets are changing the way we think about corporate real estate. Yet many organisations continue to manage property costs using outdated approaches such as relying on inertia and historical precedents and automatic responses which fail to keep pace with reality and future prospects. 

Reviewing expenditure allocation today does not just mean cutting the budget, but rethinking it from scratch, asking: does every euro invested really generate value for the organisation, for people and for the environment? This is where the two methodologies come into play: benchmarking and zero-based budgeting. 

Benchmarking allows you to compare your property expenditure with that of similar entities – companies in the same sector, of the same size and in the same geographical context. This approach reveals hidden inefficiencies, areas for improvement and best practices that are not visible from within. It is not just a numerical comparison: it is a lens for optimising costs without sacrificing quality. 

Zero-based budgeting, on the other hand, completely overturns this paradigm. There is no need to start from the previous year's budget. You start from scratch, defining strategic objectives: corporate sustainability, quality of real estate services, people's well-being and space performance. Every item of expenditure must be justified on the basis of the value it creates, not out of habit. 

By combining these two levers, companies not only reduce costs (by up to 20-30% on average, according to industry studies), but also generate triple value: economic, environmental and social. 

This innovative vision gave rise to eFM's philosophy, Sustain Engaging Places: a structured and comprehensive project that guides companies in transforming their corporate spaces into truly sustainable ecosystems. These not only improve economic efficiency through data-driven decisions and targeted optimisations, but also drastically reduce environmental impact and generate tangible social value by promoting employee well-being, hybrid collaboration and overall productivity.