Summary: The General Services Administration (GSA) manages and oversees 268 million square feet of space in about 8,000 buildings. These buildings are known as real property. GAO testified in 1991 that federal buildings and other real property are valuable but undermanaged national assets that are integral to federal departments and agencies for carrying out their operations. GAO also said that long-standing structural and managerial problems limited GSA's ability to strategically acquire and manage its real property assets, effectively support agencies' mission objectives, and maximize the taxpayers' returns on GSA's portfolio of owned or leased buildings. This report examines (1) the reforms that four countries--Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Sweden--made to their real property organizations to address the long-standing problems that were common to the United States and these countries; (2) the results of these reforms to date; and (3) the lessons the countries learned from these reforms that could be useful to the United States as it introduces reforms to better meet its real property needs.
