Heading into 2026, the global scene is once again marked with hot wars, taut geopolitical tensions, straitened governments, and an undulating landscape for global trade and tariffs.

Investors will find themselves in a commercial real estate environment that is poised for significant change in 2026. A combination of new technology, economic influences and policies will reshape how investors evaluate the market.

The US industrial sector has been a standout performer for much of the past decade, with returns outpacing the benchmark for 38 of the past 40 quarters. We expect industrial outdoor storage (IOS) assets will continue to be top performers in the industrial sector.

The concept of the “money pump” is that if an investor’s preferences are inconsistent or extrapolative, they can be systematically exploited by more sophisticated market participants.

Despite considerable disparities in markets and sectors across the Asia Pacific region, real estate professionals expressed cautious optimism for 2026, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2026, published jointly by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Jurong Island, the cornerstone of Singapore’s energy and chemicals (E&C) industry, is pivoting to serve growing demand for decarbonisation solutions, specialty chemicals, sustainable materials, circular feedstocks and new energies.

Asia Pacific insurance asset managers are increasingly turning to outside experts to look after their funds as acceptance of third-party managers grows, according to new research from Clearwater Analytics.

M&G Investments (M&G) has plans to invest £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) into UK multifamily housing to build more than 3,000 rental homes in London and regional cities where there are housing shortages.

Aquilius Investment Partners has completed fundraising of its second real estate secondaries flagship fund, AIP Secondary Fund II (AIP SF II).

Princeton Digital Group (PDG), a data centre provider based in Asia Pacific, has started building a 120-megawatt artificial intelligence (AI)–ready hyperscale data centre campus in Greater Jakarta. In other news, PDG has entered South Korea, its seventh country after Singapore, Japan, India, Indonesia, China and Malaysia.

It is hard to ignore the news stories about artificial intelligence (AI) — from claims it will reshape society more than the Industrial Revolution to warnings it could end humanity.