Commercial real estate sales activity in the first half significantly outpaced 2025, a new report from Green Street found, even as high interest rates and Middle East conflict weighed on the economy.

Green Street counted $164B of CRE property sales worth $25M or more between January and June in its midyear broker rankings. The metric was up nearly 30% from the $126B over the same period in 2025.

It also tracked a 9.3% increase in sales of properties worth between $5M and $25M, jumping from $52.3B in the first half of last year to $57.1B this year.

“The market is cautious, but there is optimism that commercial real estate has tailwinds that can push through the macroeconomic backdrop,” Green Street Real Estate Alert Managing Editor Rich Quinn said in a statement.

“While investment professionals are keeping a keen eye on employment growth and interest rates, they appear primed to continue the upward trajectory of the past two years,” he added.

Green Street tracked a particularly strong uptick in transactions brokered by a sell-side adviser, up 39.3% year-over-year.

The findings are based on a nationwide survey with responses from about 40 brokerages. Green Street also included numbers drawn from property records, published reports and press releases.

The increased sales activity has been bolstered by big banks’ growing willingness to finance commercial real estate deals, as several of them signaled in second-quarter earnings reports last month. Goldman Sachs issued $40B in commercial real estate loans in Q2, up 21% from the prior year.

That rising activity has been driven in large part by the artificial intelligence data center build-out as large financial institutions vie for a slice of the booming sector.

Transaction activity has also been buoyed by distressed assets trading, from offices hit by the pandemic-era workplace shift to other properties with loans coming due in a higher-rate environment than projected.

The Federal Reserve last month kept its benchmark rate flat for the fifth consecutive meeting, in part because the conflict in Iran has created a drag on the global economy and pushed prices up.

In Bisnow's anonymous midyear market survey released last month, some of the 62 CRE professionals surveyed shared an openness to new acquisitions despite challenging macroeconomic conditions. They said the distress being worked out in the market was creating some bargain deals that would pencil for investors despite high interest rates.