If you have been to CoreNet before, you know how the hallway conversation tends to go. Someone asks how the portfolio is looking, and the answer is some version of “pretty good, actually.” The data is solid, the team is on top of it, and the next round of lease decisions is under control. Then someone asks how long the last big decision took, and the answers get a little less confident.
CoreNet Global Summit runs October 26–28 in Chicago this year, and many of us will be trading the same polite questions. Our 2026 Corporate Real Estate Decision Readiness Index suggests some better ones. The research found a wide gap between how ready leaders feel and how fast they can act, so we turned a few of its findings into questions you can bring with you.
What the 2026 Decision Readiness Index found
We surveyed senior real estate, facilities, and finance leaders at enterprises with at least $500 million in revenue, most of them in North America. The headline is that leaders feel ready and the numbers say they are moving slowly.
In the past year, 89% of leaders delayed at least one portfolio decision, and 43% renewed or extended a lease on unfavorable terms because they lacked the time or decision support to act differently. The typical major decision takes more than four months. At the same time, 92% of leaders said they were confident in the information behind their last portfolio decision, yet only 13% can model a scenario quickly and only 10% can bring their data together automatically.
The market is not waiting while teams assemble spreadsheets. More than half of respondents, 53%, report a shrinking set of acceptable, compliant space to choose from, and the figure rises to 58% in financial services. (We dig into how delays and fewer options feed each other in The Cost of Delaying CRE Decisions.)
Five questions to bring to your sessions
Whether you are in a session on lease strategy or standing in line for coffee, these are worth raising with your peers.
1. How long does a major portfolio decision take you, really?
Start with the number. Two-thirds of the leaders we surveyed said a typical major decision takes four months or more, and lease timelines do not stretch to match. Ask a peer how long their last renew, relocate, or consolidate decision took from first conversation to signature, and how much notice the lease gave them. The distance between those two timelines is where options tend to disappear.
2. What actually triggers your decisions?
In the Firefighter archetype from the Index, portfolio decisions happen when a lease expiration, an HR escalation, or an executive-level problem forces them. It makes a useful test for any portfolio. If most of your conversations start with a deadline that is already close, that is worth knowing, and it is worth hearing how other teams get decision windows onto the calendar sooner. You can read about all five archetypes in Which CRE Decision Maker Are You?
3. How much of your data is assembled by hand?
About 90% of leaders told us they assemble lease, cost, and utilization data partially or fully by hand. When we asked what slowed their last major decision, data integration was the most common answer at 30%, while only 9% said information was missing. The data exists in most organizations. The work is getting it into one place before the window closes. Ask what it takes at your company to answer a simple cross-functional question, and how many teams get pulled in.
4. Can you compare scenarios before the window closes?
Confidence in the data is one thing, and being able to use it quickly is another. In our survey, 87% of leaders said they cannot model and compare portfolio scenarios quickly on integrated data. If renewing, relocating, and consolidating each take weeks to model separately, you may end up choosing among the options you had time to analyze rather than the options you actually had.
5. Where do decisions wait for approval?
Among enterprises whose main source of delay was stakeholder alignment, 57% accepted unfavorable terms. For those whose main delay was slow leadership approvals, it was 58%. These teams often had the data and could model the scenarios, and they still ran out of time getting agreement. Ask who needs to sign off at your company, how long that takes, and whether anyone has found a way to start those conversations earlier.
Where to find us
Tango will be at booth #220 at CoreNet Global Summit, October 26–28, in Chicago. Stop by to see our energy and sustainability management, occupancy analytics, portfolio strategy, space management, facilities maintenance, desk booking, and conference room scheduling solutions in action.
If you would like dedicated time with the team, you can book a meeting in advance. We are glad to walk through the Index findings, compare notes on your own portfolio, or just hear what you are seeing from your side of the table.
Not heading to Chicago? The Index includes a short self-assessment that places your organization on the spectrum from Firefighter to Optimizer, and it is a good conversation starter for your own team too. Download the 2026 Corporate Real Estate Decision Readiness Index to see where you stand.
