Research Reports

This report from Manulife Investment Management delves into the commercial real estate trends that are shaping our portfolio allocation and investment strategy for 2025.

Key takeaways: The cold storage real estate segment continues to “institutionalize,” and we expect this trend will help push capitalization rates down, and values up, in the sector. The demand outlook for cold storage is strong: Farming and food companies are expected to consolidate inventories into larger, more efficient, modern cold storage facilities to improve logistics and meet consumer preferences. An aging U.S. population is also propelling demand for cold storage, with increasing storage needs related to medicine. Construction activity in the sector is high and a near-term risk for some markets.

Data centers are among the fastest-growing and most impactful real asset investments today. In 2025, data centers operators can choose to complete either the GRESB Real Estate or Infrastructure Assessment. This decision hinges on careful consideration of factors such as investment approach, materiality, peer group selection, and data sharing requirements.

This white paper explores current participation trends, scoring insights, and highlights from the GRESB Benchmarks and provides detailed guidance on selecting the most appropriate assessment in 2025. It also sheds light on GRESB’s ongoing efforts to address the unique characteristics and sustainability challenges of data centers.

The Swiss economy has shown resilience amid global challenges, such as high inflation and rising geopolitical tensions and expected to grow in 2025. The lowering of interest rates over the past year has brought momentum back to the Swiss real estate market. Residential and commercial segments remain robust, driven by high immigration and structural shifts. The outlook for 2025 is positive across rental, office, retail, logistics, and hotel sectors.

This report outlines the evolution of private market investment in alternative real estate sectors. It discusses how some shared characteristics, previously distinguishing them from the primary sectors, are in some instances becoming somewhat less relevant. Today alternatives are not just targets for value-add and opportunistic strategies. Their role in core portfolios will therefore also be explored.

For real estate, 2025 is beginning on a somewhat positive note - property has repriced (or is still repricing), short-term interest rates have fallen from their 2023 peaks, and bid-ask spreads have narrowed.

The U.S. economy wrapped up 2024 strong, with 2.5% GDP growth, 1.4% job growth, inflation under 3% and unemployment at 4.1%. However, the outlook is clouded by uncertainty around the Trump 2.0 agenda, raising risks of higher deficits, inflation, and interest rates.

Despite ongoing uncertainty, real retail sales in the Eurozone are projected to grow modestly at 1.7% p.a., outpacing both 1.4% p.a. real GDP and 1.0% p.a. real disposable income growth over the 2025-29 period.

In this second installment of our Artificial Intelligence & Real Estate Series, we expand on the framework introduced last year that analyzes the impact of the rising adoption of AI technologies on the commercial real estate environment. We’ve warned that as the AI revolution remains in its infancy, investors should brace for unanticipated breakthrough advancements that are difficult to predict and precisely time. Indeed, over the past month, a defining event took place, intensifying the competition for AI industry leadership and market dominance. Should investors be wary or optimistic?

European logistics remains supported by strong fundamentals and a resilient rental growth profile, providing a solid foundation for long-term performance. With asset values stabilising, liquidity improving, and occupier demand set to recover, we see 2025 as a compelling entry point to capitalise on the sector’s enduring strengths. To fully take advantage on this cycle, investors should focus on the future – modern, newly built facilities that provide tenants with state-of-the-art distribution capabilities. As supply chains become increasingly technology-driven, we believe that a forward-looking logistics portfolio is essential for capturing the recovery and securing superior long-term returns. The logistics sector is likely at a turning point, and investors who align with evolving tenant demands today should be best positioned for success tomorrow.