Real Estate Alert Reports That Smaller Investment Sales Declined 29% at Midyear, But Outpace Institutional Sales

Staff Report

Friday, August 25th, 2023

Real Estate Alert has released its Mid-Year Broker Rankings of transactions valued between $5 million and $25 million in an Aug. 22 special supplement analyzing the private-capital segment. The supplement leverages Green Street's proprietary data and analytics to provide unparalleled intelligence on U.S. commercial real estate. It also includes comprehensive analysis of private-capital transactions by property sector and market.

Deals for properties valued at $5 million to $25 million declined 29% to approximately $38.9 billion from January through June, according to the supplement. "That represents the largest drop since Real Estate Alert began tracking smaller sales four years ago, but still well ahead of the $25 million and up space, where first-half sales dipped 61% over the past year," Real Estate Alert reported.

CBRE led the Midyear Overall Broker Rankings for the private-capital space as well as for sales priced at $25 million and higher. In the smaller-sales race, Marcus & Millichap placed second, followed by JLL.

The first six months yielded $96.8 billion of multifamily, industrial, office, hotel, retail and niche property trades worth $25 million or more, according to Green Street's Sales Comps Database. That's down from the first-half record of $247 billion in the year-ago period and close to the first six months of 2020, when sales dropped to approximately $86 billionamid the onset of the pandemic.

"The declines in the first half were sweeping, affecting every asset class to varying degrees and every major brokerage firm," Real Estate Alert reported. CBRE once again was in the lead at midyear with a 23.9% share of brokered trades in the institutional space. Eastdil Secured was in second with a 16.3% market share, followed closely by JLL with a 16.1% share.

Volatile debt markets made financing more costly and harder to come by, particularly for larger deals. Moving forward, the largest obstacle continues to be uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve's campaign to tame inflation will end.

"Real Estate Alert has been the trusted authority on U.S. institutional investment sales for over two decades," explained T.J. Foderaro, Editor-in-Chief of Real Estate Alert. "With four years of data, analysis and insights on the forces fueling smaller investment sales, we are rapidly emerging as the go-to source on the sub-$25 million private-capital segment as well."