'Boots on the Ground' Report: Q1 2026 Reflections; What's Next?

Breakdown, by asset type, of to-the-minute thoughts and experiences we're seeing today:

‍Multifamily: We are continuing to see liquidity in the small and mid-sized multifamily sales market, and the leasing side is still ticking along, although noticeably slower. Older, smaller assets have shifted to overwhelmingly owner-occupant purchases, investor interest has dried up.

‍Storage: In the face of higher cap rates (6.5% feels like the "floor"), we've seen surprisingly increased levels of assets sold and being brought to market. There are some headwinds for storage with significant amount of supply coming online, but seller motivations appear to be largely personal life changes, trading up in assets, or other reasons.

‍Retail: Retail spaces for lease and investment sales of retail assets continues to require creative structuring and strong efforts to get across the finish line. Retail tenants are very cost-sensitive. Triple nets and CAM costs are exploding, with some property's operating costs higher than the asking rent. It does seem like something will need to change to break up the logjam in retail - what that is exactly is different for every deal.

‍Industrial: Industrial demand is showing signs of waning, with several large assets sitting vacant. If an asset checks the basic "boxes" (yard space, good overhead doors or docks, right-sized, some HVAC, etc), we are not seeing issues selling or leasing industrial.

‍Office: Office seems to slowly be coming back, as remote or hybrid work is becoming the minority for employees. For both office sales and leasing, while needing more time and attention, we're seeing deals happen if the price is reasonable. The flight to quality is real; newer = better!

‍Land: Homebuilders, one-offs, and the occasional large tract are moving, but we would prep any seller to significantly expand their timeline. Sellers will not be rewarded for testing the market on sales prices - buyers are pessimistic with a lot of options, but closing when they can.

‍Overall, we saw a strong spike in activity in Q1-on the closed sales, signed leases, and new listing verticals. While activity comes in waves, we're projecting a strong balance of Q2 and full-year 2026.