The Key Issue for CRE? Politics

Scott Muldavin, 2017 chair of the Counselors of Real Estate

CHICAGO—In disruption there is opportunity as well, and the Counselors of Real Estate’s annual list of the Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate certainly goes heavy on disruption. It’s also not a list of items that can be ticked off and dealt with one by one: in announcing the 2017-2018 CRE Top Ten list earlier this month, Scott Muldavin, chair of the invitation-only Counselors, noted that many of the issues are interconnected and reflect both global uncertainty and seemingly relentless disruption in the economy and multiple real estate sectors.

Heading the list is a hydra-headed issue that has an impact on all of the others because, as FTI Consulting’s Michael Hedden points out, it makes reaching decisions on anything more difficult. The issue is global uncertainty and political polarization, as exemplified by recent elections in the US, the UK, France, Austria and other countries.