Federal Real Property: GSA Should Create Goals to Ensure New Approach Saves Money and Accelerates Disposals of Unneeded Property
Fast Facts
The General Services Administration has sold over 900 unneeded federal properties since 2013, generating $1.4 billion in revenue. Preparing federal property for sale and selling it has historically been challenging and time intensive.
GSA kicked off a new accelerated approach for property disposal in 2025. GSA has saved on operations and maintenance costs from sales under the approach. But it hasn't set specific, targeted goals. If GSA isn't measuring the approach's performance against goals, it could miss opportunities to make sales more efficient and achieve greater savings.
Our recommendations help GSA address this.
One of Multiple Federal Buildings at a Commercial Complex That Sold for $137 Million in 2025
An office building with a large glass wall and a lawn.
Highlights
What GAO Found
From October 2013 through November 2025, the General Services Administration (GSA) sold hundreds of properties owned by GSA and other federal agencies. These properties generated $1.4 billion in revenue and were primarily sold through GSA’s auction website. While residential properties were the most frequently sold property, most of the sales revenue (75 percent) came from commercial and industrial properties. Since 2018, GSA has sold fewer properties, but more of these sales were higher value, leading to an increase in sales revenue. When selling GSA-owned properties, GSA took about 1 year or less to dispose of about half of its properties, while other properties took several years. Delays in selling federal properties were caused by a number of factors, such as agencies needing to secure funds to relocate, prolonged environmental remediation efforts and time needed to evaluate interest from other government entities in claiming the property, according to GSA officials.
GSA Sales of Real Property and Revenue by Year, October 2013–November 2025
Since 2025, GSA has taken initial steps to change its approach to disposing and selling properties, including centralizing how disposals are managed and creating a website that lists properties for accelerated disposal. However, GAO found GSA’s efforts do not fully align with selected key practices. For example:
- GSA estimates the approach could save agencies billions of dollars in avoided repair and operations costs. GSA has not established performance goals linked to the accelerated approach. For example, GSA’s 2026 performance plan does not include goals for reduced timelines or avoided costs. Establishing such goals could help GSA better define the approach, simplify disposals, and gain greater cost savings from avoided operations and maintenance costs.
- GSA has not determined how to evaluate the effectiveness of using private brokers to lead its public sales, compared to other methods such as its auction website. In 2025, concurrent with a one-third reduction in staff in its disposal office, GSA hired private real estate brokers to lead public sales. Using data on the timeliness of completion, costs to pay brokers, and sales revenue could help GSA select the most optimal method for future sales.
Why GAO Did This Study
GSA assists federal agencies in disposing of and selling unneeded real property, from office buildings to undeveloped land. Preparing and selling federal real property has historically presented challenges that can result in disposals taking years to complete and lead to agencies paying millions of dollars to operate unneeded buildings. In March 2025, GSA announced it would begin disposing of properties using a new accelerated approach to disposals and sales.
GAO was asked to review GSA’s efforts to conduct sales of federal real property. This report examines (1) how GSA sold excess real property from 2013 to 2025 and the results; and (2) how GSA plans to sell federal real property under its accelerated disposal approach, and the extent that changes to its process meet selected key policymaking practices.
GAO analyzed GSA’s real property data for all completed sales from October 2013 through November 2025, reviewed GSA documentation related to its accelerated disposal approach, including internal policies on sales and budget and performance plans. GAO compared this information with selected key policymaking practices identified in prior work.
Recommendations
GAO is making three recommendations to GSA, including that GSA establish performance goals for GSA sales that link to the accelerated approach, and evaluate the effectiveness of using private real estate brokers. GSA agreed with GAO’s recommendations and described activities it would undertake to implement them.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA should ensure the Public Buildings Service establishes performance goals for GSA sales that link to the accelerated disposal approach. Such goals could address obtaining maximum value for the property, timeliness of project schedules, reducing deferred maintenance and liabilities, and avoided operations costs for properties from completed disposals and sales. (Recommendation 1) |
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA should ensure the Public Buildings Service establishes and implements a plan to ensure that disposal and sales data are of sufficient quality to assess the accelerated disposal approach. (Recommendation 2) |
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
|
| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA should ensure the Public Buildings Service, where applicable, evaluates the effectiveness of using private real estate brokers to lead real property sales in comparison to other GSA-led sales methods. Such an evaluation could include an examination of information from both GSA-led sales and broker-led sales on sales revenue generated, timeliness of completing the sales, and the costs of the brokers' services versus GSA-led sales. (Recommendation 3) |
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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