Research Reports

The commercial real estate industry is navigating an environment marked by capital scarcity, evolving risk appetites, and shifting operating models. To bring some clarity to this moment, RCLCO Management Consulting launched its inaugural CRE C-Suite Outlook, a survey designed to surface the trends shaping the strategic agendas of real estate leaders across the United States. The survey responses deliver a collective snapshot of how the industry’s senior decision-makers are thinking about capital, talent, innovation, organizational structure, and risk. The results serve as both a benchmark and a sounding board for executives seeking to evaluate their strategies against broader industry dynamics. This report synthesizes insights from 80+ survey respondents who currently hold senior leadership roles at CRE firms that, combined, represent a reported $39 billion dollars in real estate investment volume in 2024. RCLCO also conducted follow-up interviews with participants to gather additional feedback on survey themes. Our hope is that findings from the CRE C-Suite Outlook help inform boardroom conversations, capital planning, and long-term vision-setting across the real estate landscape.

In a market defined by uncertainty, AEW’s Q2 2025 U.S. Research Perspective offers clarity on valuation cycles, sector divergence, and the path forward.

Evaluate real estate investment opportunities on the horizon in the U.S. markets with this bi-annual sector report, featuring: cross-quadrant perspectives from our real estate investment professionals, current conditions and outlooks for core real estate sectors, and non-traditional sectors such as data centers.

Evaluate real estate investment opportunities on the horizon in the European markets with this bi-annual sector report, featuring: cross-quadrant perspectives from our real estate investment professionals, current conditions and outlooks for core real estate sectors, and non-traditional sectors such as data centers.

In their latest report, AEW addresses a longstanding question: What do prime market returns mean for European real estate fund investors? To answer this, AEW converted their latest projected European prime market returns of 8.1% per annum for the period 2025-2029 into a new European fund-level return projection of 7.1% for the same timeframe, reconciling how the two different returns are defined. Additionally, AEW back tested their historical prime market returns. This analysis confirmed that their top 25% of markets, ranked by projected returns, consistently outperformed the average of all European markets by 260 to 420 basis points during the historical forecast periods for which a full 5-year actual return is available.

The U.S. power sector is undergoing unprecedented growth and transformation, primarily driven by four key trends: 1) A surge in data center energy demand creating unprecedented consumption patterns. 2) Transformative federal policy changes introducing new legislative frameworks. 3) Infrastructure constraints and regulatory challenges limiting supply growth. 4) Developers encountering rising capital costs due to elevated interest rates. These intersecting factors are creating both challenges and strategic investment opportunities in the power market space.

Demand for data centers is booming. In primary markets, available capacity is minimal, driving vacancy rates to historic lows, less than 2% in most markets. At the same time, new development has been increasingly constrained. Lead times for critical equipment such as transformers, switches and generators and long delays for permitting and power interconnection have doubled timelines in many cases. Now, with exponentially more demand from the AI revolution, power and land itself is in short supply in many primary markets. Suitable sites with a clear path to permitting and access to utility power are increasingly scarce. In some, Dublin and Amsterdam for example, regulators have imposed moratoriums on new data center builds due to a lack of power infrastructure.

Housing supply is tight in the Midwest and Northeast; inventory is building up in the Sun Belt. The “lock-in” effect from low mortgage rates in 2020–2021 is limiting mobility and we expect this to continue impacting home sales through the end of 2027. We project a -1.5% change in home prices in 2025 (currently -0.4% YTD), as measured by the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, followed by +0.5% price growth in 2026. We expect price declines to be concentrated in the South and California, with Florida experiencing the steepest drop. More cautious homebuilder sentiment is causing falling construction starts. We expect falling new supply and favorable demographic trends in the Sun Belt to support stronger price growth in 2027 and beyond. Despite near-term price softness, strong consumer fundamentals, elevated rates and limited credit availability present a favorable backdrop for residential lending.

Fundamentals will be a primary driver of total returns versus the post-Global Financial Crisis financially engineered returns which were driven by historically low interest rates. We believe property and market selection are therefore paramount. Uncover opportunities amidst the evolving macroeconomic environment and the commercial real estate investment landscape.

Two years after CapitaLand Investment's (CLI) publication of our first research paper on Asia Pacific (APAC) Private Credit, institutional interest in the sector continues to accelerate. Amid tighter financial conditions and higher regulatory constraints faced by traditional lenders, borrowers are turning to private credit for faster execution, flexible structures, and customized solutions. Within this landscape, real estate (RE) private credit is emerging as a key growth segment, supported by APAC’s rapid urbanization, rising refinancing needs, and evolving capital requirements.