Strategic real estate management

In its role as a Federal Construction and Properties Service, the ETH Board is responsible for strategic real estate management in the ETH Domain on behalf of the Confederation.

An efficient real-estate and facility infrastructure is a central prerequisite for both Federal Institutes and the four research institutes to be able to achieve their objectives in teaching, research and the transfer of knowledge and technology, and to be able to satisfy the quality requirements. For this purpose, the ETH Domain has an extremely heterogeneous real-estate portfolio that is spread all over Switzerland. This portfolio has a balance-sheet value of approx. CHF 4.3bn, is owned by the Swiss Confederation and is strategically managed by the ETH Board and the institutions of the ETH Domain.

Federal Construction and Properties Service

The ETH Board is the construction and real-estate authority appointed by the Federal Council for the ETH Domain, occupying the same position as the Federal Construction and Logistics Office (civilian construction) and armasuisse (military construction). In this function, it is responsible for the attainment of the Confederation’s strategic real-estate management objectives and for compliance with the principles of task fulfilment. In addition, the ETH Board coordinates the management of the various properties and ensures the preservation of their value and functionality.

To exercise both strategic control and its supervisory function, the ETH Board applies systematic controlling processes. It largely delegates the operative implementation of real-estate management to the institutions and defines the relevant competencies and the control model in real-estate directive.

Requirements planning and financial planning

The results of tasks in strategic real-estate management are spatial and financial overall concepts which reflect the long-term requirement and finance plans of the institutions and of the portfolio as a whole (rolling; 12-year horizon). These plans and their implementation also constitute part of the ETH Domain’s finance/investment plan, of strategic controlling in the ETH Domain and of the Board’s consolidated reports about the ETH Domain to the Confederation.