C-suite executives see real estate as a strategic opportunity that can help companies achieve business objectives, according to CBRE’s inaugural C-Suite survey.

Nearly all executives surveyed indicated real estate is important to achieving business objectives, and half said real estate will become even more important during the next three years. Executives in the financial, professional and legal services sectors as well as technology firms are more likely to view real estate as highly important than their counterparts in the manufacturing and distribution sectors, according to the report. Sixty-one percent of financial, professional and legal services executives see real estate as highly important compared with 14% of manufacturing executives.

Eighty-three percent of those surveyed said real estate has a critical or very important role to play in signaling culture. Among the goals C-suite leaders have for their real estate assets is to enable business resilience while balancing cost management. Their priorities include increasing flexibility and efficiency, cost-saving opportunities, retaining talent and tackling sustainability goals, and using real estate performance data and metrics to drive better decision-making.