This year’s commercial real estate recovery has been uneven in the face of uncertainty and instability, but the market has maintained its resilience. 

Large market-moving investment shops are setting the tone, while burgeoning niche asset classes and strategies — e.g. data centers, private credit, adaptive reuse projects or creative joint venture structuring — are shaking up the multi-trillion-dollar industry. 

Keller Augusta captured interesting market-specific color from real estate professionals in this year’s Annual Workplace & Compensation survey. The results pointed to an evolving industry that feels optimistic, while trying to keep its footing. Hiring and recruitment strategy is directly impacted by these dynamics. 

Below are some of the key market results from the 2026 survey. 

Multifamily leads asset classes 

Data centers have been capturing much of the limelight in the industry, but maybe unsurprisingly, respondents reported a keen focus on multifamily investment, likely due to the heightened demand and the strength of the asset class in the face of economic uncertainty. 

Altogether, housing subsectors were selected by respondents as leading investment focuses over the next 12 months beginning in March 2026: Market-rate or luxury multifamily (66%), affordable and workforce housing (26%), senior housing (16%), and student housing (15%).  

Market mover JPMorgan Chase recently announced that it’s doubling down on multi- and single-family housing with a plan to deploy $750 billion into the sector through 2035, via its American Dream Initiative. 

Keller Augusta is seeing demand for talent across many functions supporting multifamily lending, investment and development.

Investment interest in other asset classes remains highly fragmented 

Competition for capital is fierce in the commercial real estate market, but outside of the larger firms, investment dollars are attracted to innovative, focused or targeted strategies. That could be contributing to the scattered interest among respondents in deploying capital into other sectors besides housing. 

The other asset classes or strategies behind multifamily and housing that our respondents tagged as priorities include: industrial and logistics (41%), retail (32%), office (25%), hotels (18%), conversions or adaptive reuse projects (13%), healthcare (13%), data centers (11%), self-storage or cold storage (11%), and life science (7%). 

Generally, CRE professionals with specialized experience in asset or portfolio management, debt originations, and fundraising and capital formation are in demand. 

Firms will pay a premium for AI-literate professionals capable of automating leasing workflows, reducing energy consumption, and optimizing cash-flow forecasting. We’re also seeing a need for more junior-level talent in the development arena as the construction outlook gradually improves.

Macro factors are weighing on CRE firms and could impact business timelines

The ongoing geopolitical conflict and inflation, as well as the Federal Reserve’s unclear outlook on fluctuating monetary policy is a source of anxiety for industry professionals. CRE firms are still confidently, but selectively, exploring the hiring market for more talent to support or build operational efficiencies, but there are a number of extraneous factors that may either upend or drive their decision making. 

More than 58% of respondents pointed to decreased interest rate risk and easing monetary policy as a key factor in unlocking their business activity in 2026 and 2027, while just under 58% identified inflation and elevated costs impacting deal economics as the leading issue that could negatively impact their businesses. CRE labor market concerns and talent retention (34%), portfolio diversification (30%), AI and tech proliferation (28%), and geopolitical risks (23%) followed as the top matters that they expect could either disrupt or support business opportunities going forward in a crowded market.

Keller Augusta’s 2026 Workplace & Compensation Survey was conducted over three weeks in March. Contact kaitlin@kelleraugusta.com to learn more about the full compensation benchmarking and market trends study.

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