Perspective
2024 commercial real estate outlook: Finding terra firma
Realigning the global real estate industry to help meet new foundational realities
Continuing to confront multiple challenges and shifting expectations, in 2024, the global real estate industry has an opportunity to start rebuilding on more solid ground. Marked by a myriad of mixed signals about the health and trajectory of our industry, real estate leaders may need to find their footing as they shape the next phase of real estate ownership and investment.
Key takeaways
- Expense mitigation is a top priority for most respondents; revenue expectations dropped to their lowest level since we began our survey in 2018. Top areas for expense mitigation are in talent and office space.
- Respondents point to cost of capital and capital availability as the weakest among real estate fundamentals. About half of respondents expect cost of capital (50%) and capital availability (49%) to worsen through 2024, up from 38% and 40%, respectively, last year.
- Many real estate firms aren’t ready to meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations. Nearly 60% surveyed say their firms lack the data, processes, and internal controls necessary to meet compliance standards.
- Most respondents say they plan to use outsourcing to drive efficiency. Their primary goals are gaining technological capabilities to streamline processes and adding agility and resilience to their operations.
- Real estate firms should address years of amassed technical debt by ramping up technology capabilities. Most respondents (61%) admit their firms’ core technology infrastructures still rely on legacy systems, but nearly half are making efforts to modernize.
