The federal government’s latest effort to get rid of unused buildings was hampered by staffing cuts, but it is expected to save taxpayers billions over the long term by avoiding maintenance and upkeep costs.
In fiscal year 2024, taxpayers shelled out more than $17 billion to keep 246,000 government buildings running as efforts to shed costly space have run into roadblocks.
Despite the Trump administration’s push to unload surplus federal properties more quickly, the process remains challenging, according to a Government Accountability Office report, an independent watchdog for Congress.
“Federal agencies pay millions of dollars to maintain buildings that are not needed for their mission,” according to the GAO report. “Disposing of them can also take several years to complete. Deferred maintenance and repairs for these properties are estimated to cost billions of dollars.”
Administration officials have said the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service is moving ahead with President Donald Trump’s plans to modernize and rightsize the U.S. government’s real estate portfolio.
Last year, the Public Buildings Service got rid of 90 buildings, shedding 3 million square feet of space. Those sales generated $182 million in proceeds and avoided $415 million in repair and operating expenses. GSA reported that an additional $730 million in costs were avoided through lease negotiations and reductions.
The agency called it “a strategic step in ongoing efforts by GSA to reduce the federal real estate portfolio and cut costs for American taxpayers.”
More broadly, the Public Buildings Service aims to save nearly $3 billion in maintenance costs by reducing the use of underused buildings.
GSA has sold 921 properties since 2013, bringing in a total of $1.4 billion, according to the GAO report. The number of sales peaked in 2014 and 2015, primarily due to GSA helping federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, sell hundreds of military residential homes, which were typically priced below $300,000.
GSA has sold everything from unused courthouses to a federally owned crude helium gas site managed by the Department of the Interior. That property sold for $423 million in 2024, accounting for about 31% of total revenue from sales since 2013.
The GAO report found that selling the properties often wasn’t the problem. More often, it was getting the site ready for sale, a process that in some cases can take years.
For example, plans to sell a federal courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa, took about 2.5 years, in part because GSA had to wait to sell it while construction of a new courthouse was delayed. Another property was on the books for 7 years as local parties debated about how the building should be used once it was sold.
Dealing with other governments was the most time-consuming delay, according to the report.
“Officials said disposals are typically delayed the longest when a federal, state, or local entity is interested in a property transfer or using the property for public benefit purposes,” the report noted.
Staffing cuts also led to problems, according to the GAO report.
“Officials stated that having fewer staff located across the country has created challenges in accessing and preparing properties for sale. For example, officials said they could not provide timely access or tours of a property being sold by private brokers because there were no GSA staff in the area,” the report noted.
For decades, the government has struggled to determine how much office space it needs. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report noted that retaining excess and underused space is one of the key reasons that federal real property management has remained on the GAO’s High-Risk List since 2003.
“Even before the pandemic shifted the balance between in-office and remote work, federal agencies struggled to identify and let go of unneeded space,” according to a 2023 GAO report. “Operating unused space has unnecessary financial and environmental costs.”
The GAO report made several recommendations to improve tracking of GSA’s disposal of unused federal property.
“GSA now has fewer staff managing disposals and continues to face longstanding challenges in disposing of unneeded real property, which can result in lengthy and costly delays,” the report concluded. “While GSA is in a period of change, the new accelerated disposal approach may help the agency identify and dispose of properties more efficiently and effectively.”