CRE Ball Game May Be Headed into Overtime

Decision-making might have slowed over the past year, “but the appetite for investment in real estate continues unabated,” says Rose.

TORONTO—With the imminent inauguration of a new President only one of the changes in store for this year, the commercial real estate industry is not in quite the same environment it was for 2016, even if many of the same conditions prevail. Citing the Chicago Cubs’ historic recent World Series win as an analogy, Avison Young chair and CEO Mark E. Rose sees the current cycle as going into overtime, just as the Series finale did.

“The widely held opinion is that real estate is in the seventh inning,” he says. “At Avison Young, we disagree. We see something very different. We might be in the seventh or eighth inning from a pricing perspective, but given the market forces and attributes that currently exist, we could be in the seventh inning of a very long extra-innings game for our industry. Real estate is a legitimate investment alternative and is currently producing higher yields than stocks and bonds.”