Demographic shifts — the impact of retiring baby boomers and the rise of the millennial generation — likely will have the most significant impact on real estate in the near and long term. So concludes a Counselors of Real Estate report that identifies the top 10 issues that will affect real estate development and investing during 2015–2016. Several of the issues on this year’s list are interrelated and affect multiple property sectors.

Demographic shifts rose to the top of this year’s list because of the sheer numbers of people and transactions involved in the evolving needs of both groups in coming years, and the far-reaching effect these will have on real estate across all sectors. Excess capital supply — funds largely flowing into U.S. real estate purchases from foreign institutional and private investors — and rising interest rates, which greatly affect activity in both the commercial and residential financing sectors, were ranked second and third on the lis