The Real Estate Roundtable

The Real Estate Roundtable is an invitation-only Washington DC policy organisation for the most senior figures in US commercial real estate. It was formed in 1999 out of the National Realty Committee and is led by Jeffrey DeBoer, who has been president and chief executive since its formation. Membership is drawn from chairs, presidents and chief executives of major public and private real estate entities, managing directors of national and international financial, pension and lending institutions, and the elected leaders of 18 national real estate trade associations. There are two grades: Roundtable membership, restricted to the heads of national, market-leading real estate entities and of major trade associations, whose members attend four Washington meetings a year; and the President's Council, for leaders of firms that are generally more regional in scope, whose members attend two. The organisation's work is policy rather than commercial: tax, capital and credit, energy, homeland security, housing, and cities and infrastructure. It reported total revenue of about $8.0m for its 2024 financial year in its IRS Form 990.

How it works

Members meet in Washington DC (four meetings a year at Roundtable level, two at President's Council level) and serve on policy committees covering tax, capital and credit, energy, homeland security, sustainability and real estate ISAC security work. Staff produce policy comment letters, fact sheets, a quarterly sentiment index and a weekly member newsletter, and represent members before Congress and federal regulators. There is an affiliated political action committee, REALPAC, and an Education and Research Foundation.

Typical member

The Roundtable publishes a breakdown of its membership as 67 percent owners, 20 percent financial services, 3 percent asset managers and 10 percent real estate trade organisations. It states that members collectively manage more than 12 billion square feet of commercial space and more than four million apartments.

This is the narrowest organisation in this batch and the only genuinely invitation-only one. It is not a networking club or an education body: the product is coordinated access to federal policymaking, and the membership is deliberately small enough that the individual firms are recognisable. Anyone below chief-executive level at a national-scale owner, lender or trade association is outside the stated eligibility, and the President's Council exists precisely to accommodate regional leaders who do not meet the Roundtable test. Almost nothing about cost or selection is public: there is no published dues figure, no acceptance rate, and the member roster sits behind a login. That opacity is normal for a body of this type, but it means any figure circulating for Roundtable dues should be treated with suspicion unless the source is named.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.