25 years of Structura.biz: staying the course in a shifting market
Structura.biz marks its 25th anniversary this year, at a time when the commercial real estate market itself is in flux, with a slower investment climate and repositioning across the industry. Managing partner Klara De Neve and co-CEOs Bert Cuyt and Alexandre Parmentier look back on a journey built around one consistent thread: continuity.
Defined by clients, not by a niche
What sets Structura.biz apart today isn’t so much a specific real estate niche as the type of client it serves: Belgian SMEs, liberal professions, smaller multinationals and Belgian investors. Within Capital Markets, the focus sits on Belgian capital and family offices, with a specialism in the small-cap segment between €1 and €15 million, a niche that stayed active even as the broader investment market nearly stalled.
The firm has also carved out a strong position in smaller deals that rarely show up in official market figures: ground-floor retail with housing above, smaller portfolios, direct sales to end users. On the office market alone, roughly half the team’s revenue comes from this type of deal, territory few large brokers occupy on a structural basis.
From semi-industrial to offices, via retail
The story began 25 years ago in the Flemish periphery around Brussels, built on a strong base in semi-industrial real estate, still the backbone of the business. Two turning points followed: the acquisition of Bureau Gérard in late 2014 opened the door to retail, and the partnership with Antwerp-based design-and-build firm Captif Office Architects in mid-2023 led to the creation of Groep Steenberg, the holding company overseeing all three businesses under founders Klara De Neve and Dimitri Saerens. That structure now lets clients be guided end-to-end, from real estate strategy through to fit-out.
Revenue currently sits around €4 million, with industrial real estate accounting for nearly half and Capital Markets for roughly a quarter. After a tougher 2024, 2025 met expectations again, and 2026 is following the same trend.
Holding steady through market turbulence
Two years ago, leadership passed to Bert Cuyt and Alexandre Parmentier, at a far from ideal moment: a slowing investment market, rising competition, experienced brokers leaving for other firms. Structura.biz nonetheless held up relatively well, and both leaders draw a clear lesson from it: it’s the stable teams, long-established in their region or segment, that consistently deliver the best results.
That stability doesn’t happen on its own; it’s built by giving staff room to decide and genuine trust. Bert Cuyt is proof of that himself, he joined as a student worker and is now co-CEO. The commercial team now counts 22 people, with further hiring planned, particularly for Capital Markets.
Evolving without losing its identity
The profession itself hasn’t fundamentally changed, but expectations have: better-prepared decisions, longer timelines, tenants scrutinising every option more closely. A file today needs to be far more solidly backed than it was a decade ago.
To keep pace, the company is investing in a new CRM system and gradually rolling out artificial intelligence, particularly for analysing complex files. For Cuyt and Parmentier, AI will change the job, but it will never replace what makes a good advisor: visiting properties, negotiating, understanding a client, and defending a file face to face.
Long seen as a regional player, Structura.biz now claims an ambition that reaches well beyond its origins, even its logo has dropped any reference to a local identity. To mark its 25th anniversary, the company chose an approach true to its own culture: no single big celebration, but smaller gatherings with clients and partners instead. A fitting way to show that, after a quarter of a century, it’s steady consistency, not flash, that has made the difference.