Future-proofing your estate: four steps for a successful estate review

Sewell Advisory’s Director of Strategy, Greg Salisbury, looks at why data-driven estate reviews are an essential step before you can make decisions on your estate, and how they can highlight underutilisation and opportunities for improvement for your real estate portfolio.

Organisations must continuously reassess their real estate portfolios, evaluate how space is used, understand and identify the associated costs, and determine the overall functional requirements of their physical assets. A data-led approach to real estate management enables organisations to review and configure their estate to meet operational needs efficiently. This strategic approach can unlock significant value, reduce costs, and drive the achievement of broader organisational objectives, ensuring alignment with long-term business goals.

To plan its future estate effectively, an organisation must prioritise establishing a clear understanding of its existing assets, their current usage, and how they compare to present and future needs. Conducting an estate review is a critical first step in this process, forming the foundation for key strategic documents, including demand and capacity assessments, estate strategies, capital investment plans, workforce planning, and digital transformation roadmaps. By taking a structured and systematic approach to estate reviews, organisations can ensure that their real estate portfolios are optimised to meet both immediate operational requirements and long-term strategic ambitions.

Key approaches to estate reviews

By following this phased approach, an organisation’s unique needs can be understood, and meaningful outcomes can be delivered.

The value of a data-driven approach

These assessments provide organisations with an evidence-based framework for evaluating their current estate against future ambitions. By relying on data analysis rather than subjective experience, organisations can validate or challenge assumptions, ensuring decisions are grounded in factual insights rather than anecdotal evidence. This approach allows for a more strategic interrogation of the estate – where it is, where it needs to be, and how it can be optimised to support broader business goals.

While estate reviews may highlight specific projects or opportunities, their primary objective is to inform decision-making, justify interventions, and demonstrate value for money rather than simply identifying isolated schemes. This structured, data-led approach enables organisations to identify inefficiencies, optimise resource allocation, and create an agile and future-ready estate that supports operational excellence.

Underutilised and inefficient properties represent a significant financial burden, but they also present an opportunity for transformation. By leveraging data-driven insights, organisations can develop a strategic approach to estate management – one that modernises, improves, rationalises, and ultimately unlocks value from their assets. The ability to make informed, data-backed decisions ensures that real estate portfolios remain responsive to changing business demands and external conditions.

The first step on the road to strategic estate management

Estate reviews should be viewed as the first step on the road to strategic real estate management, providing a roadmap for developing solutions that not only meet operational needs but also generate long-term value. As organisations navigate an evolving landscape – characterised by rapid technological advancements, changing workforce dynamics, and increasing financial pressures – a data-led approach to estate planning will be critical in ensuring agility, efficiency, and resilience in the years ahead.

By taking a proactive and structured approach to estate management, organisations can ensure their real estate portfolios are aligned with business priorities, support operational excellence, and drive financial sustainability. Future-proofing an estate requires a commitment to continuous evaluation and improvement, ensuring that organisations remain competitive, adaptive, and well-positioned for long-term success.

Know your estate, plan with confidence.

If you need help planning for the future of your estate and think we can support you through the process, get in touch.

Find out how we gave strategic estates advice to North East Ambulance Service.