Nearly a year into the pandemic, the CRE industry is showing mixed signs of the recovery. The SIOR Snapshot Report shows waning investor confidence alongside strong transaction volume.

Overall investor confidence fell in the third quarter after two consecutive quarters of improvement. In the fourth quarter, confidence fell to 6.2 out of 10, the lowest level since the second quarter of 2020, when investor confidence was 6.3 out of 10. Industrial had the highest level of investor confidence at 6.9 out of 10, while office has the lowest investor confidence at 4.7 out of 10.

Although investor confidence fell in the fourth quarter, in schedule transactions increased from 42% in the third quarter to 67% in the fourth quarter. On hold transactions decreases, but cancelled transactions remained the same. Both office and industrial transactions showed an improvement. On-schedule office transactions increased at 52% from 38% in the third quarter, but cancelled transactions increased at 20% from 17% in the third quarter. On schedule industrial increased significantly from a rate of 51% in the third quarter to 74%. Plus, cancelled transactions decreased from 12% to 9%.