Liquidity has returned to the top end of the US commercial real estate market, as large single-asset deals notched their strongest growth rates in more than a decade and reclaimed nearly two-thirds of all investment dollars, according to third-quarter data from Altus Group. Yet even as volume surged, median deal sizes and pricing patterns underscored how uneven the recovery remains across industrial, multifamily, retail and office.
Altus Group’s quarterly report shows that 1,826 single-asset transactions over $10 million traded in the quarter, the highest count since Q3 2022 and equivalent to 5% of all single-asset deals.
Those large transactions totaled $76.4 billion and accounted for 67.8% of all single-asset investment dollars, a share last seen in mid-2022 and slightly above the pre-pandemic high of 67.2% in late 2018. Large-deal volume rose 48% quarter-over-quarter and 41% year-over-year by count, with total value up 48% from Q2 and 46% from a year earlier. The latter, excluding the immediate post-pandemic spike, marks the strongest growth since 2015.
Deal Sizes Remain Below Peak
Despite that rebound, the market has not returned to peak transaction sizes. The median large-deal value across all property types in Q3 2025 was $19.6 million, roughly 9% below the $21.4 million high reached in late 2021, keeping total dollar volume below the levels posted in 2021 and early 2022.
Altus attributes much of the shortfall in overall volume to deal size rather than deal count, as investors remain willing to transact but with slightly smaller checks than during the boom period
Industrial Holds Near Record Levels
Industrial continues to anchor the upper tier of the market with relatively modest slippage from peak values. The median large industrial deal closed at $18.9 million in Q3 2025, just 1.7% below its $19.2 million peak in Q1 2024, highlighting that investors are still willing to pay near-record ticket sizes for logistics and related assets.
That resilience, combined with firming pricing per square foot, positions industrial as one of the sectors where large-deal activity appears closest to “normal” rather than cyclical overshoot.
Multifamily Drives Market Momentum
Multifamily is further off its top but remains a primary driver of the recent upswing in median transaction size. The median large multifamily deal stood at $29.3 million in Q3 2025, down 8.2% from the sector’s $31.8 million peak in Q2 2022, but still roughly mirrors the overall market’s pullback from late-2021 levels.
However, since the post-pandemic trough in Q4 2023, the median size of large CRE deals has risen 4.7%, led by a 14.2% increase in median multifamily deal size, underscoring renewed appetite for scale in that asset class even as underwriting remains more conservative than during the 2021–2022 run-up.
Office Trails Far Behind
Office stands out as the clear laggard in Altus Group’s analysis. The median large office transaction was $18.1 million in Q3 2025, a steep 23.8% below its $23.8 million peak way back in Q4 2013. That weakness is echoed in pricing: median price per square foot for large deals fell 3% quarter-over-quarter and 4.4% year-over-year for office, even as other major sectors showed signs of stabilization or firming.
Retail Finds A Stable Equilibrium
Retail, by contrast, appears to have settled into a remarkably narrow band. The median large retail deal came in at $15.5 million in Q3 2025, just 6.1% below its $16.5 million peak in Q2 2012 and broadly consistent with a decade-long pattern of typical trades hovering near $15 million.
Altus notes that retail deal sizes have “held remarkably steady,” suggesting a sector where investors have already repriced assets and where large transactions proceed at a measured but durable pace rather than surging or collapsing.
Signs Of Pricing Stabilization
Across all property types, pricing metrics point to early stabilization rather than a full-fledged expansion. Median price per square foot for large deals rose 0.6% quarter-over-quarter and 0.6% year-over-year in Q3 2025, signaling that sellers and buyers are beginning to converge on clearing levels after several quarters of dislocation.
A Shift Toward Market Normalization
The composition and timing of the Q3 rebound stand out against more than a decade of market history. After the Global Financial Crisis, large transactions rose from roughly 500 per quarter in 2011 to more than 1,500 by 2015, then briefly spiked above 4,000 in Q4 2021 before receding as rates climbed in 2022 and 2023 between early 2023 and mid-2025, the market cleared the 1,500-deal threshold only once. Q3 2025 breaks that pattern, with Altus describing a “meaningful shift” in investor behavior as large single-asset trades again drive the overall market.
Cole Perry, associate director of research at Altus Group and author of the report, writes that the reappearance of large single-asset transactions “marks an important step toward market normalization,” as investors show “a willingness to commit meaningful capital to individual properties.”
The quarter’s data, he argues, offer “the clearest evidence in several years that liquidity is returning to the upper tier of the CRE market,” even if the industry has not yet regained the peak pricing and deal sizes of the last cycle. Altus frames the key question heading into year-end as whether this momentum will carry forward as borrowing costs stabilize or prove to be a short burst before another pause.
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