Cushman & Wakefield Reports on Commercial Property Activity

Chicago, IL, July 1, 2024-Cushman & Wakefield, a global commercial real estate services firm for property owners and occupiers, issued the following information as part of its mid-2024 report. In 2023, the firm reported revenue of $9.5 billion across its core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, and valuation and other services.  Here are some highlights from a recent macro report they published:

Office: U.S. office-using job growth has slowed dramatically, with 134,000 net new office jobs created in 2023, down from 1.1 million in 2022. Office-using job growth will remain somewhat muted in 2024 before picking up in 2025 as economic growth reaccelerates. After six years of declines, office space net absorption will become positive in 2026.

Healthcare / Medical Office: Healthcare asset performance continues to remain strong, with average national occupancy at 91.5% and rent growth continuing to range from 2.5% to 3.5% in many markets.

Data Centers: Despite the challenges of power availability in many markets, the North American data center market pipeline continues to grow. With a development pipeline of 24GW, the region’s total capacity is poised to grow 2.5x over the next several years.

Senior Housing: In the years ahead, we expect renewed interest from investors across the subsectors (i.e., independent living, assisted living, and memory care) as construction will race to keep up with growing demand.

Student Housing: Student housing assets have outperformed the broader multifamily market over the past few years, thanks to a development pipeline that has all but shut down in the wake of the pandemic. As a result, occupancies improved and rent growth should outperform the broader multifamily sector through 2025-2026. Larger schools, especially top-tier state institutions with more stable demand pools, are likely to garner the majority of the activity and growth over the next few years.