JLL Sees Revenue Rise 11% As Iran Conflict Impact Remains Muted

JLL posted a strong quarter despite strong macroeconomic headwinds, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization up 22% year-over-year. The brokerage reported nearly $6.4B in Q1 revenue, up 11% compared to the same period in 2025.

The brokerage’s performance was driven primarily by its capital markets and leasing businesses, which benefited from increased transaction activity in office and industrial, as well as a “meaningful contribution” from data centers, Chief Financial Officer Kelly Howe said.

JLL CEO Christian Ulbrich shrugged off the minimal initial impact of the U.S conflict in Iran on the company’s bottom line, though he cautioned that the longer it lasts, the bigger the repercussions for the worldwide economy.

“The U.S. market is pretty much unimpressed by the geopolitical environment,” Ulbrich said on the firm’s first-quarter earnings call Thursday morning.

“But with every week this is continuing, we have these higher energy prices and all the other implications,” he added. “The lengthening out of that conflict will have a heavier load on the global economy.”

Ulbrich said if the conflict had been solved within four to six weeks, the impact on business outside of the Middle East would’ve been “almost unnoticeable.” But as the Iran conflict stretches past two months, the effects are rippling through energy prices, fertilizer supplies and the chemical industry. These are costs businesses initially absorbed through stockpiles but are increasingly hard to avoid, he said. 

The ramifications are softest in the U.S. market due to its energy independence, Ulbrich said, but the impact is already "quite noticeable" in Europe and is a source of "great concern" in India and other countries with high dependency on Middle Eastern energy and agricultural imports.

“From a commercial perspective, there has been no material impact on our consolidated results to date,” Ulbrich said. 

“We have intentionally taken a conservative approach to leverage and are prepared for a wide range of outcomes,” he added. “We are focused on first and second order risk to our businesses globally, across a variety of scenarios to the extent tensions persist and become a meaningful headwind to the global economy.”

The company also swung from $28.7M in equity losses on investment management and proptech investments to $6M in equity gains year-over-year, and spent $14.4M less on restructuring and severance than in Q1 2025.

Ulbrich said the capital markets business started the year with significant momentum around the globe, which has continued in the second quarter. In European markets, the company has seen some deals canceled or delayed as a result of the Iran conflict, but he said that just limits even better performance, not stifles it. 

“It's just what this conflict does,” Ulbrich said. “It takes away additional outperformance, which we would have seen otherwise without that conflict.” 

Capital markets revenue was driven by investment sales, debt advisory, and equity advisory activity across nearly all sectors. Equity advisory revenue was up 75% year-over-year, while investment sales and debt advisory were up 27% and 30%, respectively. 

Both investment sales and debt advisory revenue are up even more significantly on a two-year basis, by 42% and 81%, respectively, pointing to a sustained recovery in deal flow.

The brokerage saw its Q1 office leasing deals increase in both average deal size and volume, while industrial leasing deals also grew in average deal size. JLL's office leasing revenue outperformed the broader market — up 12%, while global market volumes fell 1%, according to JLL research. In the U.S., revenue rose 14%, while market volume grew just 7%.

The “ecosystems” around the artificial intelligence and financial services industries have been a major factor behind the uptick in activity, Howe said. Leasing activity has been particularly strong on the coasts in San Francisco and New York, she said. 

“Ironically, I would argue that the AI boom has actually been also a boom for our leasing business,” Howe said. 

JLL’s stock dipped slightly in early morning trading Thursday, down about 5% as of the time of publication. 

JLL also repurchased $300M of its shares in the first quarter, including a $200M accelerated stock buyback launched in March. The move is part of a combined $3B repurchase ceiling, the highest in the company’s history, reflecting a goal to return capital to shareholders and leadership's view that the stock is undervalued.

Looking ahead, the total annual amount of repurchases in a given year will depend on a few factors: the broader operating environment, the company’s leverage outlook and valuation, and relative returns to other investment opportunities, Howe said. 

“We do intend to have a fairly programmatic approach to share repurchases as we go forward,” she said. 

JLL's strong quarter comes on the heels of rival CBRE's strong Q1, which saw revenue increase by 19% year-over-year to $10.5B and core EBITDA jump 60% year-over-year to $831M. 

Howe said the company is encouraged by the continued strength in its pipelines and underlying business fundamentals. She said JLL is targeting an adjusted earnings-per-share range of $21.80 to $23.50 for the year, reflecting 20% growth at the midpoint. 

“The strong first quarter results put us on a trend towards the upper end of the range, though the current fluidity of the macro environment limits late year visibility into our more economically sensitive businesses,” Howe said.