Kate Keller, Principal

The first half of this year showed the resilience of this U.S. commercial real estate recovery, but the tide is not necessarily rising for all.

Investment activity has accelerated, debt capital is selective but available, and pricing has stabilized enough to somewhat close the gap between buyers and sellers. Interest rate uncertainty has returned and macroeconomic issues are still a concern for many market participants. Conviction, discipline and creativity is being rewarded.  

Data centers and digital infrastructure continue to draw the bulk of attention away from traditional asset classes, while the industrial and office sectors are showing signs of life.

Office vacancy is declining in more than half of U.S. markets. Geographical expansion and a general return-to-office push is driving demand, which is at its strongest level in six years due to a lack of new construction and obsolete office inventory being converted. Operating income, rather than cap-rate compression, is driving returns in the sector and the burden of value creation has shifted to property managers.

CRE recruitment has mirrored the market uncertainty, but there is momentum. The year started strong, with executive and senior-level recruitment interest and a particular focus on capital raising and asset management roles; many firms want senior leaders who can drive strategy, reinforce existing portfolios and support AI literacy. 

The second half of 2026 is expected to be active despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and higher costs of business, and we anticipate continued interest in candidates who can creatively enhance platforms and prepare a company for growth. 

Kaitlin Kincaid, Senior Managing Director

Firm-wide, search volume has increased considerably compared to last year.  Demand is strongest in asset management, accounting, finance, operations, and notably, there’s an uptick in development and construction positions. Candidates who can demonstrate an established track record of success and ability to create value within an existing portfolio are standing out in today's market.

That said, recruitment remains challenging. Companies have elevated their criteria for talent, making searches more complex and targeted. Hiring budgets are less flexible, and firms are increasingly unwilling to take a chance on candidates who do not satisfy every desired attribute.

Post bonus season, firms have experienced a heavier turnover than we have seen in the last few years, which has strained organizational charts across platforms. Employee morale and team capacity remain a concern as firms continue working through portfolio distress, and tighter hiring budgets have only made it harder for companies to compete for and retain the right talent.

Market complexity, ongoing uncertainty, and the push toward new technology have exposed skill and tech gaps across generations of employees. Meanwhile, AI is making its way into nearly every job function, as companies figure out how it and other emerging technologies fit into their businesses. These dynamics are shaping hiring decisions across the board, from property management, architecture and construction, to finance, accounting, and operations.

Despite the uncertainty, optimism persists across the market. Companies are hiring, which is a surefire sign of confidence in the overall market outlook.

Christina Smith, Managing Director 

"Cautiously optimistic" is what comes to mind at this year’s midway point. Hiring activity across all functions of CRE continues to move in a positive direction, even as the market shifts.

Many recruitment opportunities are additive hires or efforts to rebuild teams that were reduced during the pandemic. Candidates are still hesitant to consider career moves in an uncertain market, which has kept candidate pools smaller. Development and project management hiring remains heaviest at firms operating out of a fund structure, and the most desirable candidates are those who can illustrate solid experience with every facet of the development cycle.

In Boston — where Keller Augusta’s home office is located — the statewide rent control question being struck from the November ballot is the biggest development of the year so far. Many firms had held off on urban residential projects until it was resolved, so the added regulatory clarity may spur developers to push those projects forward.

Tax incentives from the local government have made office-to-residential conversion opportunities more palatable for Boston developers, but it’s unclear whether conversions will take off in a meaningful way. Multifamily and industrial are popular asset classes, while return-to-office momentum is driving additional activity in the downtown office market. Generally, elevated construction costs continue to impact the market, though general contractors in the areas have expressed optimism about backlog in the second half of 2026 and into 2027.

Materials costs and interest rate uncertainty will dominate the second half of the year for developers, but even still, firms remain very selective and diligent in their hiring.

Sierra Olney, Managing Director

The macro investment market through the first half of 2026 has shifted from defensive preservation to strategic offense, and human capital strategy has moved with it. Private equity firms, institutional REITs, and boutique investment managers are rebuilding their investment, finance, and capital markets teams. But this is not a return to volume hiring. Firms are pursuing precise, structurally distinct recruitment mandates, and generalist skill sets are phasing out.

With organic NOI growth now the primary path to alpha, technical requirements have sharpened. Candidates must combine data fluency with specialized sector expertise, modeling complex capital stacks and navigating preferred equity and rescue capital structures. In asset management and operations, firms are paying premiums for AI-literate professionals who can automate leasing workflows, reduce energy consumption, and optimize cash-flow forecasting.

A talent mismatch between traditional sectors and emerging asset classes is forcing acquisition teams to rethink sourcing. Applications for industrial and multifamily roles are ballooning, while qualified data center and infrastructure professionals remain scarce. Forward-thinking firms are responding with interdisciplinary hiring, onboarding energy and infrastructure analysts and training them on real estate fundamentals, prioritizing analytical aptitude over legacy experience.

Competition for fundraising and debt placement talent has intensified as firms launch permanent capital vehicles, with aggressive poaching from private credit platforms driving compensation upward. The result is an hourglass hiring pattern: strong demand for senior vertical leaders and execution-oriented associates, with a freeze at the mid-level as firms favor lean structures built on strategic leadership and high-output junior talent.

Lauren Hodgetts, Senior Director

The first half of this year has been headlined by real interest for a variety of capital markets and investment roles.

Many market participants are now able to capitalize deals in a way that they were not just a couple of years ago, so increased deal activity is causing greater demand for acquisitions talents. This demand increase started last year, and it has created more movement and backfilling in the acquisitions space.

The private credit market is very crowded, but there is still a strong need to put out that capital, which has created needs for debt originators in certain pockets of the sector that are stronger than others — data centers and digital infrastructure, multifamily, construction, bridge lending, and agency multifamily originations, among others. There is recurring activity here.

Demand remains steady for asset management talent, while portfolio growth is driving a lot of the headcount expansion we see from some platforms. In good times and in bad you need strong portfolio maintenance and performance, and it seems firms are acting on that.

The development arena has showcased a need for more junior-level talent as the outlook for construction gradually improves. We have more construction assignments today than we did a few years ago, due to an uptick in activity, and I expect demand in this sector to continue to grow throughout 2026.

Kate Mecke, Senior Director

 The back half of 2025 and the start of 2026 brought about an increase in senior-level investment hiring activity; we saw a notable uptick in succession-driven hiring last year as many investment teams began experiencing a changing of the guard among senior professionals. Interest in mid-level investment talent — such as VPs and directors, a demographic that had previously felt gridlocked — has followed a similar pattern. Associate-level hiring for investment roles has remained consistent.

Activity in the data center sector continues to generate significant buzz across the industry, and while few would argue against the viability of data centers as an asset class, the rapidly evolving nature of the development landscape has created unique recruiting challenges.

Difficulty attracting talent to data center-specific mandates stems not only from the limited pool of professionals with meaningful data center experience and years of relevant reps under their belt, but also from the challenge of recruiting talent away from other asset class-specific work. Given the rapidly evolving nature of the data center landscape, many candidates remain cautious about making the transition, often expressing uncertainty around a firm's long-term commitment to the sector, its ability to execute successfully, and its overall positioning within an increasingly competitive market.