Benchmarking: Strategies for gauging operational performance Available to Purchase

Benchmarking is a tool for analysing a property or portfolio performance against its peers. This paper outlines some of the central components of benchmarking and demonstrates how benchmarking can bring perspective to operating expenses and ultimately positively affect the valuation of a property. Careful benchmarking of operating expenses can reveal much about the value of investment properties and help to identify opportunities to create value or enhance the value of an asset. Examples illustrate how the value of a given asset can vary dramatically, with even small percentage changes in operating expenses. Such information, in turn, provides the basis for facility and asset management decisions, ranging from estimating budgets to planning capital expenditures for upgrades or improvements. Benchmarking can also enable detailed comparative analysis, which in turn, can assist in identifying areas for improving operations and management by trimming costs or adjusting service levels.