Hilversum, 8 November 2013. Five leading advice organisations in the area of corporate real estate have founded the Corporate Real Estate Federation (CREF) opgericht. This new independent federation aims to inform organisations about corporate real estate and related subjects. CREF has the ambition in the long term to grow into a leading, independent knowledge institution for the development of the profession and supporting the professionalism of corporate real estate in The Netherlands.
The aim of the new federation is encouraging and sharing ‘best practices’ and knowledge of corporate real estate, forming a bridge between commercial real estate occupiers and the real estate world and increasing the professionalism of the specialist area of corporate real estate. Additionally, the federation represents the interests of its members as professional group. The initiators of the Corporate Real Estate Federatie are: AOS Studley, AT Osborne, Procore, Redept en Twynstra Gudde.
Corporate real estate is quickly developing but still an underrepresented area. It still has an insufficient role in the strategy and operations of organisations. Many organisations that use commercial real estate for their operations are selling themselves short in the opinion of the intiators. Exactly in times in which competitive positioning and cost control play an important role within organisations, active CRE-management is crucial. Landlords take still too often a leading role in the conversation between landlord and tenant. That is not good for the necessary balance.
The introduction of a new model rental agreement for offices as an alternative for the ROZ rental agreement is one of the areas which CREF is currently focusing on. The existing ROZ model dates from 2003 and is regarded since then as “extremely tenant onfriendly”. The aim is to arrive at a model that is more in balance and to respond to the interests of real estate tenants. The new model will also offer an advantage for landlords – by offering more clarity discussion will be prevented as well as the endless negotiations over all the exceptions.
The Corporate Real Estate Federation organised in April of this year a round table meeting with the large (listed) enterprises, central government and public organisations to assess the wishes and bottlenecks. Subsequently, CREF members further processed the information together with Bricks Advocaten and M2 Advocaten. In the first instance whether the wishes and recommendations can be incorporated by the ROZ will be assessed. In the same way SSM developed the new retail rental agreement in 2012 that was largely incorporated in the new ROZ retail contract.
Membership of CREF is open to service providers in the area of Corporate Real Estate. Members come from the advice sector in commercial real estate, accommodation, workplace design, organisation advice, management consulting and real estate law. They must demonstrate that a clear emphasis in their work is on providing independent advice in the area of Corporate Real Estate and must have contributed to the profession. Additionally members must comply with CREF’s own code of conduct.
See also: www.cref.eu
