January 4, 2026 by Bisnow Staff

48 CRE Insiders On The Decisions That Will Make — Or Break — 2026

There’s always a temptation to declare the comeback.

To circle a date. To call the bottom.

Every time commercial real estate survives a rough patch, as it did in 2025, it tends to reach for a familiar comfort: the belief that the next up cycle will look like the last.

Well, that instinct seems to be missing this year, and that absence may be the story of 2026. 

Because when you strip away the noise and read what CRE’s most experienced global operators are actually wrestling with right now, certainty is nowhere to be found.

Discipline? It’s everywhere.

Photo: Bisnow/created with assistance from ChatGPT

But that’s something more sobering, and arguably more useful: a market learning how to operate without shortcuts. Capital is moving again, but slowly. Pricing is resetting, but unevenly. Liquidity is creeping back, but strict underwriting is no longer optional. 

It’s a new era for investment.

So, Bisnow reached out to dozens of CRE luminaries across sectors and geographies to ask: What is the hardest decision your business will face in 2026 — and how do you plan to navigate it?

The answers don’t point to a clean rebound or a single playbook. They point to trade-offs. Where not to deploy capital. When waiting becomes riskier than acting. How much growth is too much. How far to lean into artificial intelligence without confusing speed for judgment. How to build housing when costs refuse to cooperate and economic policy keeps shifting the goalposts. How to build the right team to meet the moment.

What’s striking is how little appetite there is for bold moves. 

No land grabs. No wholesale retreats. No single asset class riding in to save the day. Instead, this is a market defined by selectivity, patience and credibility with investors, tenants, employees and partners alike.

The recovery — if that’s even the right word anymore — won’t look like the comebacks of the past. It will be more transparent, more data-driven, more politically exposed and far less forgiving of recency bias. Capital will reward conviction but punish sloppiness. Markets that overreach will find out faster than they used to.

Taken together, these responses describe a reset in behavior. 

In a multitrillion-dollar industry long built on cycles, 2026 isn’t about bouncing back.

It’s about getting it right.

— Mark F. Bonner, Bisnow Editor-in-Chief

:::

What is the hardest decision your business will face in 2026 — and how do you plan to navigate it?

Whether the industry is ready for recovery in a different form. Cycles have been somewhat consistent in that they are usually peak to trough to recovery in five years. We are starting that post-five-year period in a more mature, somewhat different environment. Capital value and velocity recovery have begun, but data availability, artificial intelligence and recency bias will alter the future landscape. There is more transparency in underwriting and decision-making, and AI will change how we process information. With that said, inflation will still be lurking, interest rates will appropriately be higher but stable against a decade ago, and investors and users will need to come to grips with the fact that offices are not dead and still needed. Residential, industrial and data centers cannot be the only comfortable investment.

SECTOR: Global Brokerage, Advisory, CRE Services
CITY: Chicago
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 40

:::

I will tell you that Covid put hard decisions into context. It's a little bit like, “Is it going to be Covid hard or just, like, Tuesday hard?” There's a lot about things that I don't have any control over, and so the hardest decisions are going to be our reactions to things that other people do. What is going to happen on the federal level? What is going to happen with the city? To navigate these, I have to be both in the moment but also thinking long range.

SECTOR: Multifamily, Affordable Housing
CITY: Boston
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

How we balance critical targeted expansion across high-growth U.S. markets with the disciplined maintenance of our international footprint, while continuing to deploy significant capital to keep our highest-margin locations competitive and optimized. Simultaneously, we must remain committed to operating with a lean selling, general and administrative model so the business stays efficient and focused on long-term and sustained profitability.

SECTOR: Office, Flex Workspace
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

How to scale impact without increasing headcount. AI will help, but it won’t solve everything. The real challenge is prioritizing where human judgment, experience and accountability matter most and making tough calls about focus. I plan to navigate this by putting the right people in the right roles, setting clear standards of care and performance, and investing in talent that wants to grow, own outcomes — and raise the bar. Doing more with less is about alignment, discipline and empowering the people who truly move the business forward.

SECTOR: Retail
CITY: Los Angeles
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 25

:::

Where not to deploy capital. With more opportunities coming to market and still-uneven pricing expectations, the real risk is forcing transactions, especially with the lack of deal volume over the last several years. We’re navigating this by staying disciplined on the basis, underwriting to current fundamentals rather than potential interest rate relief, and prioritizing assets with durable demand and long-term relevance in premium submarkets with A locations.

SECTOR: Multifamily, Retail
CITY: Chicago
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 15

:::

I’m pretty damn optimistic about 2026, having just come out of some very tough years in our business, so I may not be the best sample for this one. Finding quality people, as I’m in a service business, is top of the list for me. I plan on targeting top performers and courting them individually to show the value we can provide and a platform to amplify their business.

SECTOR: Retail, Office, Residential
CITY: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 15

:::

The biggest challenge will be the collision of a liquidity comeback with stubbornly mismatched valuations. Sellers will still anchor to old pricing, while higher-for-longer rates and tighter lending keep buyers disciplined. That tension will make deploying capital both competitive and risky. We’ll navigate it by leaning into what we do best: investing in credit and special situations where we can control outcomes, underwriting with real operating data through our vertically integrated platform, staying rate-sober and focusing on assets that benefit from record-low new supply.

SECTOR: Finance, Hotels, Multifamily, Retail
CITY: Atlanta
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 26

:::

Figuring out how much money and time to allocate toward AI while navigating the “noise.” We are at an inflection point, and it tends to be challenging to navigate. On one side, values are resetting as distressed properties hit the market. On the other side, companies recognize that to be successful, you must be one of the first to get your transactions done. Do your due diligence, underwrite your asset appropriately, then hold on to your hat for a ride! The light at the end of the tunnel is stronger market metrics.

SECTOR: PACE Financing
CITY: Dallas-Fort Worth
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 39

:::

Whether tenants continue to wait for a softer market that may never materialize. In NYC, both top-tier and midtier supply across all submarkets is tightening, not loosening. As refinancing pressure eases, landlords gain both patience and pricing power. We’re advising tenants to treat delay as a risk and to prioritize certainty, flexibility and long-term downside protection while leverage still exists.

SECTOR: Office Leasing, Tenant Representation
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 25

:::

Whether to push an office repositioning strategy or to advise our clients to divest. Many assets are at an inflection point, and the wrong approach could erode or completely erase value. We’ll navigate this by pairing analytics with realistic market conditions and working closely with owners and lenders to structure creative, risk-balanced strategies that keep options open for our clients.

SECTOR: Brokerage
CITY: Philadelphia
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 10

:::

The toughest decision in 2026 won’t be what to pursue — it’ll be how much to pursue at once. Opportunities for business owners, like new tax incentives, evolving real estate needs, shifting capital markets, makes it hard to channel momentum without losing focus. For us, that means staying clear on where we create the most value and reinvesting savings into the parts of the business that compound returns over time. In a year full of possibilities, discipline and compounding are the real superpowers.

SECTOR: Office, Medical Office
CITY: Atlanta
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 25

:::

Whether to lean into growth or deliberately hold the line. Our pipeline is strong, but capital markets, interest rates and political considerations continue to test underwriting assumptions. The answer isn’t retreat — it’s selectivity.

SECTOR: Development
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 33

:::

Given how new and rapidly evolving AI is, I want to be thoughtful about the time and financial investment we make. It’s important that any resources we commit supports our ability to continue delivering best-in-class service and timely, high-quality information to our clients.

SECTOR: Retail
CITY: Houston
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

Photo: Unsplash/Yuheng Ouyang

I need to decide whether to move forward with our large multifamily, ground-up project in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. On one hand, building codes are changing in Philly next year, so we are strongly encouraged to apply for permits before the cost of construction increases. On the other hand, there is way too much uncertainty in the market with rents stagnant, vacancy rates increasing and tariffs creating havoc with our construction costs. The real estate market sucks, and [President Donald Trump] pretends there is no affordability issue, but we desperately need more housing and a larger tax base.

SECTOR: Multifamily, Retail, Office
CITY: Philadelphia
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 37

:::

Whether to keep investing in programs that support professionals of color entering and excelling in commercial real estate, or to quietly scale back amid political headwinds. We're choosing to lean in. The business case is clear: This talent pool is underestimated and undertapped. Companies that walk away from it cede ground to smarter competitors. Our path forward is reframing the conversation around outcomes, not optics, letting results speak louder than rhetoric. The companies winning in 2030 will be the ones that stayed the course when others flinched.

SECTOR: Consulting, Talent
CITY: Boston
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

Choosing where to place capital and attention as AI infrastructure scales faster than power, talent and trust can keep up. The temptation will be to chase density, speed and short-term returns. I honestly believe that the smarter path is discipline. We will focus on infrastructure that is resilient, efficient and economically durable, even if that means slower growth in the near term. Navigating this requires saying no more often, investing in people and automation, and building systems that can adapt as AI demand shifts from experimentation to real production workloads.

SECTOR: Data Centers
CITY: National
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 15

:::

The continued overengineered regulatory environment (which favors sound bites over sound fiscal policy) is causing a multigenerational D.C. real estate owner and investor to not only forgo opportunities to take on new projects in the District but to consider divesting of various long-held real estate assets. The regulatory environment is overengineered in that each separate proposal targeted at taking on landlords or cutting back on a particular fee or free-market principle ends up having multiple unintended causes. One of those causes is that the investment community sees a city that overburdens real estate assets to a point where there’s little flexibility or support to keep them thriving. The antagonism of businesses drives potential investment away from our city.

SECTOR: Multifamily
CITY: Washington, D.C.
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

How to address the housing affordability crisis. My answer is imaginative thinking. That includes repositioning land that is overlooked by conventional thinking, creating smaller, infill communities using modular construction methods, and accessing private capital markets for contributions, joint ventures and creative financing structures. Sources of public financing are becoming too unpredictable and paralyzed by bureaucracy.

SECTOR: Multifamily, Modular Housing
CITY: Atlanta
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

Who do we hire or fire to position ourselves to attract like-minded people and allow those who don’t share similar viewpoints/skill sets the opportunity to flourish elsewhere? It’s time to build with great people who possess positive energy, optimistic outlooks and tremendous talent. We’ll work smarter to avoid daily noise and focus on our actions towards long-term implications. We’ll be laser-focused to cut through distractions and identify opportunities. And we’ll avoid catching falling swords and debris. Like Nelson Mandela said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

SECTOR: Consulting, Investment, Brokerage
CITY: Chicago
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 25

:::

Our hardest decision will be balancing limited capital between personnel and advertising. We are committed to compensating early employees fairly while attracting new talent, yet we must also expand marketing to educate the market on opportunities within our early-stage budget. To navigate this, we’ll evaluate productivity at individual and team levels, adjust headcount strategically and integrate AI-driven tools to streamline operations and amplify output.  

SECTOR: Blockchain/Digital Real Estate
CITY: Houston
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 26

:::

Finding capital that will accept the current compressed yields for high-quality retail shopping centers. Large amounts of capital are seeking value-add returns, but it has become more difficult to achieve such benchmarks as the grocery-anchored shopping center investment space has become more crowded.

SECTOR: Retail
CITY: Washington, D.C.
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 19

:::

Resisting short-term opportunities that don't support long-term outcomes. As the market reopens selectively, it's tempting to chase momentum, but real value is created through durability. We'll navigate this by staying anchored to our core thesis: disciplined underwriting, rigorous execution, partner alignment and finding real gaps where market demand is underserved. Resilient neighborhoods built on realistic costs, well-structured deals and strong teams deliver the strongest risk-adjusted returns over time.

SECTOR: Multifamily
CITY: Miami
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 24

:::

What we're seeing in developers who are clients is that they're either staying the course, purchasing assets and holding them, or they are going through development and converting properties into different uses to really improve the value of their assets — and it may be outside of their wheelhouse. We're seeing some innovation, which is what happens when we are in these pivot points during these economic cycles. It's an exciting time, but it's also [about] what avenues you choose to go on.

SECTOR: Architecture, Development
CITY: National
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 28

:::

Whether and when to call capital from ownership groups to maximize long-term returns. The focus is on improving income, actively controlling expenses and communicating with investors regarding strategic ownership decisions. Good decisions are based on long-term outcomes, rather than a reaction to market noise.

SECTOR: Multifamily
CITY: Los Angeles
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

 

Encouraging housebuilding and how we try and create viability around housing development for the squeezed middle of society, who need some help in making living costs more affordable. Post-pandemic building costs have risen around 40% — and as developers, we simply can’t adjust to that. It’s more than a real estate issue. It’s a societal one. The capital is there to invest, but there needs to be government recognition that the industry needs help so that we can deploy that investment and increase supply.

SECTOR: Residential, Office
CITY: Dublin
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 37

:::

Photo: Flickr/The White House/Daniel Torok

The biggest thing is political risk. It's tough to underwrite, but you have to acknowledge it's real on the city level, on the state level, on the national level. So political risk, how you address it, how you adapt your strategy to it, is something that every investment manager has to take into consideration.

SECTOR: Capital Markets
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 19

:::

Navigating limited access to capital. As a result, disciplined and strategic capital deployment will be a primary focus. We will continue prioritizing high occupancy and strong income performance to maintain stability and cash flow. Our ability to complete projects efficiently with constrained capital has become a core strength. We plan to build on this by expanding our third-party management services, allowing us to grow while helping other owners operate effectively in a capital-constrained environment.

SECTOR: Office Property Management
CITY: Houston
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

Resource allocation — including time, money and brainpower. There are an almost endless number of opportunities to deploy capital into the AI build-out, but the key will be to identify the ones that are profitable, replicable and involve great, experienced people that we want to back.

SECTOR: Data Centers
CITY: National
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

 

How to aggressively scale the use of AI while maintaining trust, accountability and setting realistic client expectations. AI has enormous potential to automate workflows, accelerate insights and enhance decision-making, but there is a growing misconception that it can independently solve complex real estate and business challenges. Our approach is to treat AI as a force multiplier, not a replacement for expertise. We will continue investing where AI delivers clear, measurable value, particularly in scenario modeling and forecasting, which are true game-changers. At the same time, we remain vigilant that human judgment, governance and industry experience are essential.

SECTOR: Tenant Representation, Brokerage
CITY: Chicago, National
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

We will see more adjustments in office building values and the transfer of ownership. As these values come down, current capital expectations can be met. Once these transactions happen, a sense of certainty will occur. 

SECTOR: Development
CITY: Denver
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 23

:::

It’s been a tenant’s market in so many instances for the last few years, and while that remains true in a lot of cases, landlords are tightening up on the concessions tenants have gotten used to at the same time that construction costs are up. Our decisions are mostly centered around how to manage growth into our bread-and-butter tenant rep and advisory services. Both of these markets were growing rapidly before Covid and now have ground to recover, which means helping tenants understand shifting market dynamics and managing expectations around what landlords are willing to offer.

SECTOR: Office
CITY: Dallas-Fort Worth
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 45

:::

Navigating the unknowns is my biggest cause for concern. The geopolitical environment is ever-changing, AI is advancing at astonishing rates, and macroeconomic indicators give conflicting signals. To navigate the unknowns, we are doubling down on our core strengths and investing in our tried-and-true strategies to foster growth.

SECTOR: Nonprofit Office Leasing
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 23

:::

With the increased usage and adoption of AI to build software, we will see a massive flood of new software solutions in the industry. It will be near impossible for a customer to discern what is fluff versus a real solution to their needs. And this will lead to a lot more movement back to their project management system provider because it is the “safe” bet. The people who can choose the right offering will propel forward compared to the ones that will have to revisit these solutions again in the future.

SECTOR: Proptech
CITY: Dallas-Fort Worth
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 15

:::

What sort of capital structure we move forward with on a new ground-up multifamily deal. The capital options for multifamily deals in the DMV market are significantly more limited and constrained than they have been in the past, and some structures include quite a bit more risk than others. We'll navigate this climate through disciplined underwriting, identifying our risks and acting with conviction when the right opportunity presents itself.

SECTOR: Development, Multifamily
CITY: Washington, D.C.
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

I raise capital and lead impact for a community development financial institution that has spent 25 years financing housing, small businesses and healthcare centers to build stronger, safer communities nationwide. As we look toward 2026, the biggest challenge is uncertainty — about federal support, access to low-cost capital, inflation, tariffs and the broader direction of the country. It’s extremely difficult to run a mission-driven business in an environment this unstable. Without leadership that provides clarity and security, our communities pay the price. Right now, we’re moving backward, not forward — and [the United States] suffers as a result.

SECTOR: Sustainability
CITY: National
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 23

:::

How far to lean into opportunity while managing risk amid political uncertainty and subdued UK economic growth. The living sector continues to face persistent headwinds across the entire investment cycle: planning delays, construction viability challenges, regulatory tinkering that undermines landlord confidence and cost-of-living pressures that affect occupier behaviour. Our response is to deepen exposure to purpose-built student accommodation. 

SECTOR: Student Housing, Coliving, Multifamily
CITY: United Kingdom
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 20

:::

How to navigate the conversations with our investors and lenders about the investments that we're making — and what really is justifying some of the deals we make or some of the discounts that we give. They're not understanding the way that things are playing out and that sometimes you have to look at the larger, bigger good. We’re going to try and make sure they understand that we know the business and have the boots on the ground and can see the bigger picture.

SECTOR: Development, Construction Management
CITY: Boston
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 15

:::

Choosing which projects to advance to sustain our slow but steady growth plan as uncertainty persists. We’ve broadened our expertise over the years, which offers us more choices now in an uncertain market, but capital markets remain tricky to navigate, and there’s a lot of volatility out there. To manage this, we'll leverage our relationships and maintain our longstanding focus on risk management and growing smart rather than growing for the sake of growth.

SECTOR: Development
CITY: Denver
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 23

:::

Photo: Unsplash/Levart_Photographer

How to best budget for and engage with AI. This is both an internal operations challenge and a client-facing opportunity. Other considerations include empowering and training our team to accomplish the best results with the best available tools, competing effectively in the market, and communicating what we are doing and why. With all of this in mind, we are self-funding custom-coded, AI-enhanced software platforms that streamline and automate operations, simplify and enhance client data exchange, and give us a marketable proprietary advantage.

SECTOR: Energy, Technology
CITY: Chicago
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 30

:::

When your business is focused on supporting the operations-operators within another business sector, like healthcare, the hardest decisions you’ll face are how you respond to the issues, challenges and decisions they face. Today, that includes uncertain government policies and healthcare reimbursements, and rising healthcare costs. More than anything else, we’ll navigate that best by being proactive in listening to and understanding their pain points, creative in the solutions we recommend and patient in helping them work through the decision-making process. It never has to be an adversarial, us-versus-them relationship.

SECTOR: Healthcare
CITY: Minneapolis
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 40 

:::

Communities are getting delivered and have been getting delivered in 2025 and will continue to get delivered — let's just say, through the first half of 2026. So, what happens when there's too many homes? People have to cut the price to get the heads in the beds. We need to spend all of our time and efforts on keeping our residents happy, right? A happy resident doesn't move.

SECTOR: Build-To-Rent
CITY: Georgia
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 40 

:::

It will depend on levels of market activity. It is clear there is increased debt liquidity in the market, so hopefully the return of investor confidence brings increased transaction volume. However, if there is a continuation of low equity transaction volumes, this will increase lender competitive tension with the potential to reduce lending and underwriting standards. I believe debt pricing and structure should reflect risk as well as liquidity, and discipline with investor capital is critical through markets and cycles. Overall, I could see the need for some tough short-term decisions in 2026 on specific transactions, especially given in-place capital, but I do believe that this will result in long-term opportunities for our lending business.

SECTOR: Alternative Lender
CITY: United Kingdom
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 25 

:::

Rising cost is the most urgent topic for us. So, with the way we establish or remove our footprint from certain cities, we have found that all of that is part of that cost equation, because last year, the cost of doing business was rising very, very fast — and we need to act accordingly. So we decided to do a merger to enlarge the company to try to cope with the rising cost, because otherwise we will just make it through. And I think this year will be even more urgent in that regard.

SECTOR: Multifamily
CITY: New York City
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 10 

:::

Affordable housing owners in D.C. are struggling, and many of our properties are in the red. For the first time in our history, we need to downsize for budget reasons next year — our hardest decision is how many and which positions to eliminate. Options include spreading the pain and asking every team to make proportionate cuts, or to target areas experiencing the most loss, understanding that many of those functions are also critical to turning around operations and sourcing new revenue opportunities. D.C. has been one of our core markets, but with weak economics and anemic political support, we need to pivot to other markets.

SECTOR: Affordable Housing
CITY: Washington, D.C.
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 26 

:::

How to promote a sense of identity and purpose with an event (the World Cup) that feeds the insatiable transnational mentality of this city. Atlanta has so much to offer and share — and it is far greater than a few weeks of a singular event. We hope that by showcasing the craftsmanship and imagination of our historic resources, we invite people to come here and enjoy what we are, and not just what they can take and leave.

SECTOR: CRE Preservation
CITY: Atlanta
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 20 

:::

While we expect economic headwinds to remain a challenge, I’m excited by the new opportunities we’re developing as a business. We see strong potential to open new routes for growth, deepening how we engage with occupiers. Alongside our leasing agent partners, we are exploring an in-house digital platform, allowing us to connect directly with businesses and understand their needs earlier and more effectively. This approach supports our commitment to tailored tenant experiences, proactive communication and long-term relationships. By testing a direct digital channel, we aim to unlock new demand, strengthen our insight and bring greater innovation to the market. 

SECTOR: Office
CITY: Dublin
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 9 

:::

Balancing prudent risk management while supporting growth in our markets. As economic conditions evolve, we’ll be focused on allocating capital wisely while making sure we are taking good care of our clients. I’m pretty confident that next year will be another solid year.

SECTOR: Banking, CRE Lending
CITY: South Florida
GENDER: Male
YEARS IN CRE: 27

:::

How to scale our business sustainably while maintaining a people-centric, collaborative culture and high-touch, trusting relationships we have with clients. We are navigating this by challenging every step of our processes and looking for opportunities to leverage technology and team strengths — but not to squeeze every last drop of productivity from people. We know the value creation that happens when talented people are freed from unnecessary administrative burden and minutia — you’re able to be more thoughtful, creative and focused on what you’re uniquely skilled at, if you have the space and support.

SECTOR: Executive Recruitment
CITY: Los Angeles
GENDER: Female
YEARS IN CRE: 11