HOUSTON—Following a difficult and jarring election season, experts debated the state of commercial real estate in 2017 with a series of possibilities, predictions and warnings. The event, jointly hosted by RealNex, a commercial real estate technology solutions firm, CCIM and Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) included three industry recognized speakers and breakfast at The HESS Club on Westheimer last month.

Jeffrey Fisher, professor emeritus of real estate from Indiana University, spoke about post-election trends under a Trump presidency and titled his conclusion “uncertain optimism” in light of continued solid fundamentals of commercial real estate, positive appreciation, a strong dollar and an expected reduction in regulations and lower taxes as a result of the new administration. Fisher predicted that interest rates, inflation and cap rates are also likely to rise in 2017.

Ted Jones, senior vice president and chief economist of Stewart Title Guaranty Company, framed his comments as “Things Change,” focusing on the state of the Houston commercial real estate market in particular.

“This is the best oil downturn Houston may have ever seen,” Jones memorably explained, saying that Houston currently boasts more jobs than at any other time in the city's history. This, in conjunction with a millennial-stimulated retail boom predicted to run for 14 years, along with upward trends in retail and industrial properties, has kept the Houston economy moving. Like Fisher, Jones sees commercial sales cooling and inflation likely to rise, but also commented on the continued surplus of office and class-A multifamily properties in the Houston area.

The final speaker, Mark Kingston, managing partner of Pavonis Group, spoke about technology in the commercial real estate industry, dividing tech into two camps: those companies that seek to extract and control data, and those whose aim is to provide solutions to the daily tasks and challenges of industry professionals. Kingston observed that technology investment is accelerating as a result of the benefits of cloud and mobile strategies, maturation of the commercial real estate asset class, preferences of industry leadership and growing resistance to the monopolistic actions of the larger solution providers. Ideally, this investment should point to real estate tech that increases revenue, reduces costs and provides a strategic advantage.

Kingston counseled commercial real estate professionals to look for 10 distinct solution objectives when considering tech solutions for their businesses. These included ease of use, ease of deployment, time to value and a complete end-to-end solution as the most significant.

RealNex, CCIM and AREAA are planning future for-credit educational events in other cities.

Instant Insights /

Real Estate Leaders Have Uncertain Optimism Post-Election

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