National + Finance | January 11, 2023

Investors Veer Toward Secondary Markets and Opportunistic Plays

Commercial real estate investors in the U.S. favor opportunistic strategies and prefer secondary markets in 2023 amid concerns about higher interest rates and tighter financial market conditions. That’s according to CBRE’s latest U.S. Investor Intentions Survey.

Covering all asset types, the survey finds that that economic uncertainty is weighing on investment sentiment in 2023, with more than half of investors expecting to decrease purchasing activity compared with 2022 levels. Twenty-nine percent will target opportunistic and distressed assets in 2023 to take advantage of market conditions, compared with 19% in 2022.

“While weakening macroeconomic conditions and rising interest rates will weigh on commercial real estate investment volumes in 2023, the amount of capital targeting the sector remains abundant,” said Chris Ludeman, global president of capital markets for CBRE. “We expect investment activity to pick up in the second half of the year as market conditions stabilize.”

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Inside The Story

CBRE's Ludeman

About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).