Tech X-Ray: Examine your CRE tech budget and benchmark based on how Fortune 500 firms optimise spend and eliminate hidden costs. Maximise your tech stack's ROI.
15 July 2026
Guide
15 July 2026
Tech X-Ray: Examining your real estate tech
Categories:
How leading firms budget for their tech stacks
Key Highlights
- Budget allocation: To support an adequate technology stack for its corporate real estate (CRE) capabilities, a Fortune 500 (F500) company spends around US $13 million annually on real estate technology, equating to $1 per square foot of property portfolio. Half of this spend goes towards operational insights, facilities management and occupancy management.
- Tech stack budget breakdown: 52% of the budget goes to software, 15% to hardware, 27% to sustainment and 6% to enhancement. This distribution is designed to support broader business objectives like cost control, talent retention and risk mitigation.
- Hidden costs: Up to 20% of costs in a typical F500 CRE tech stack are “unknown,” often in the form of duplicated functionality, unused software licenses and inefficient use of staff time. Explore how to eliminate friction in a tech budget.
Seeing through to the core issues
Collaborating with subject matter experts who work with clients across the real estate technology spectrum, JLL Technology created the X-Ray framework to benchmark cost distribution of an average F500 CRE tech budget. This framework is based on a representative firm, our capability model for real estate, along with aggregated insights on real estate budgets from a variety of clients. With these factors incorporated, the X-Ray shows how the volume and distribution of spend correlates with the complexity and value of the corresponding business process.
Leaders in CRE, Finance and IT can use the X-Ray report in three ways:
- Kickstart an informed discussion on the importance of mapping your CRE technology budget/spend
- Pinpoint hidden spend or embedded technical debt and opportunities for rationalisation
- Realign tech spend to better align with business objectives