RICS Monitor: CRE Sentiment Steady on the Surface, Fragile Underneath

June 8, 2026

Although CRE markets look stable overall, risks are quietly building up. RICS’ Tarrant Parsons shares his insights with CPE’s Laura Valean.

Global commercial real estate sentiment was broadly stable in the first quarter, but the headline numbers mask an uneven picture across markets, according to the latest surveys released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London. The war in Iran, higher energy prices, renewed inflation concerns and shifting expectations around interest rates are beginning to filter through CRE markets in different ways.

“The global index that we produce barely moved and if you were to only look at that, you kind of reach the conclusion that nothing much happened, but that aggregate figure really does mask quite a bit of movement underneath,” said RICS Head of Market Analytics Tarrant Parsons in this podcast.

Hosted by Executive Editor Laura Valean, this RICS Monitor episode touches on why credit conditions have become one of the most important indicators to watch, particularly as tighter financing could weigh on investment activity and values over the next several quarters.

Parsons also breaks down the regional picture: Europe remains cautious, the U.S. is still positive but moderating, Canada is seeing a sharper split between occupier and investor sentiment, and Asia Pacific is showing signs of improvement without yet reaching a clear recovery.

The RICS economist weighs in on the now-entrenched flight to quality across the office sector and the challenges facing secondary office assets. He also discusses the genuine structural demand supporting data centers but warns that crowding into one sector could eventually create a gap between expectations and actual returns.

Here are the main topics covered in this conversation: