It develops public policy agendas pertaining to tax, capital and credit, environment and energy, and homeland security.

[3][1][4] In 1985, the NRC had 280 member organizations: property developers, banks, insurance companies, brokerages and accounting concerns.

[14] In 2017, the organization opposed the full-expensing of structures proposed under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), arguing for real estate investment to be "demand-driven, not tax-driven.

[16] The Real Estate Roundtable wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden in December 2022, urging the federal government to both influence a greater return to office work from remote work, and to expedite under-used office space conversions for housing.

An additional 20% of members are connected to financial services, 3% are asset managers, and 10% are real estate trade associations.