CRE Investors Gear Up for September

September always seems like a time for new beginnings. It makes sense to me, but maybe I’m just programmed to think that way, trained by years and years of school schedules (first mine and now my kids’) to treat summer as a time to catch up and fall as a time to gear up.

If you really think about it, it’s a funny concept. After all, we’re already well into the year, and here in the Northern Hemisphere the weather’s cooling as we head toward winter. Fall is harvest season, leaf-changing season for those of us that are far enough north. Not exactly a time of rebirth.

But in the real estate industry, it is a busier time. Maybe even the busiest time. Although business doesn’t really slow down in the summer the way it used to, the meeting schedule picks back up in the fall, there’s a race to close deals before year-end, and clients are looking to meet their annual cap ex plans. September also marks the beginning of budget season for the year to come, a time to analyze business performance and devise strategy adjustments. So maybe it’s a time of rebirth, after all.

Which perhaps makes it less surprising that as we head toward the latter part of the year, the real estate industry seems to be settling into a certain amount of business as usual. In fact, while sentiment surveys earlier in the year indicated a good deal of hesitation as businesses sought a clearcut direction in the face of the many changes introduced by the new administration and turmoil around the world, in July the CRE Finance Council’s Board of Governors Sentiment Index signaled a significant upward shift in comfort level, with only a small percentage of respondents viewing the 12-month outlook for CRE finance business negatively.

Foreign investors, too, are feeling more confident about doing business in the U.S., after a 49 percent decrease in transactions last year due to economic and political uncertainty worldwide, according to MSCI Real Capital Analytics, and continued hesitation in the face of fluctuating tariffs and interest rate questions this year. With the U.S. still a relatively stable option for long-term investment, they’re adjusting their strategies and moving forward, Gabriel Frank reports in his trend story “Foreign Investors Recalibrate Amid Uncertainties.”

It’s not really surprising that their response is to adapt in order to move forward. It’s a hallmark of this creative, innovative industry, where those with vision and an ability to shift tend to be the ones who outride the challenges. (Another example is an exploration of partial office conversions in New York City, which Diana Mosher discusses in her feature story “Are Partial Conversions Right for You?”)

As for the timing of the increased confidence? That’s hardly a foregone conclusion. But the end-of-year surge in business adrenaline certainly helps.