US commercial real estate investment and transactions quarterly

Key highlights

• In Q1 2026, multifamily led all sectors by share of single-property transaction value (29.2%) and by share of properties traded (29.6%), followed by retail (23.3%) and office (16.7%) by count

• The share of transaction value from deals exceeding $10M reached 50.5% in Q1 2026, marking the first three-quarter stretch above 50% since 2022 and up 3.9 percentage points year-over-year and up from a post-GFC trough of 42.3% in Q2 2023

• Transactions between $1M and $10M accounted for 38.6% of single-property transaction value in Q1 2026, while those below $1M represented just 11.0%

• Industrial accounted for 22.4% of transaction value in Q1 2026 but only 14.8% of properties traded, the largest gap between value share and count share of any sector, and 7.6 percentage points above its 2015-2019 average share of value

• The median age of transacted properties varied widely by sector in Q1 2026: 61 years for multifamily, 54 for general commercial, 41 for both industrial and retail, 39 for office, and 36 for hospitality

  
  

Key highlights

• Median price per sqft hit new records across all sectors except hospitality in Q1 2026; all-property growth was +1.4% quarterly and +8.7% annually, led by retail (+10.4%) and industrial (+11.8%)

• Since Q4 2019, industrial median price per sqft is up 88.5% while office has gained just 36.6%, the weakest of any sector over that period

• Multifamily's age paradox: 1980s properties command the highest median price per sqft while the 2000s cohort trades at the lowest, below even pre-1970 stock; post-2010 properties are up 32.4% annually but rank near the bottom on absolute price

• Office shows the widest new-versus-older price gap of any sector: post-2010 properties trade at a 44.6% premium over 2000s-built stock

• Retail has the widest overall age cohort spread: post-2010 properties trade at a 161.5% premium to pre-1970 buildings, yet pre-1970 retail posted the strongest annual growth at +17.7%

Key highlights

• Median square footage of transacted properties is recovering from 2024 lows across all sectors, with office leading annual gains (+4.8%) and multifamily posting the smallest increase (+0.3%)

• Single-property transaction sizes rose annually across all sectors, led by multifamily (+18.7%), industrial (+15.7%), and retail (+15.5%)

• Retail is the only traditional sector where a majority of transaction volume (54.5%) came from deals between $1M and $10M in Q1 2026; all other traditional sectors saw roughly 57% of volume from deals exceeding $10M

• Office's share of transaction volume from deals exceeding $10M reached 57.3% in Q1 2026, up from a trough of 35.2% in Q2 2023, though still well below the 2015-2019 average of roughly 70%

• Among property subtypes, the strongest annual price gains were in storage (+22.9%), automotive (+14.0%), and warehouse and distribution (+12.8%), while the weakest were manufacturing (+2.0%), big box retail (+3.4%), and full service hotels (+3.5%)