Global Commercial Real Estate in 2026: A Data-Led Snapshot
article summarizes verifiable global data points reported by leading research organizations, offering a current snapshot of commercial real estate conditions across major regions.
January 8, 2026
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Global Commercial Real Estate in 2026: A Data-Led Snapshot
As 2026 begins, commercial real estate markets around the world continue to operate within a shared global economic environment, while reflecting distinct regional, national, and city-level conditions. Published data from international real estate and professional services firms provides a consistent picture: activity levels, capital deployment, and sector performance differ widely by geography and asset class.
This article summarizes verifiable global data points reported by leading research organizations, offering a current snapshot of commercial real estate conditions across major regions.
Global capital and investment activity
Global commercial real estate investment activity entering 2026 remains uneven across regions.
According to Colliers, investor surveys conducted across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific show that direct investments and separate accounts continue to represent a significant share of global capital allocation strategies. Fundraising activity and transaction volumes vary by region, with differences in timing, pricing, and asset preferences.
In Asia-Pacific, institutional real estate investment in India reached approximately USD 8.5 billion in 2025, representing a year-over-year increase of roughly 29%, as reported by Colliers and published by The Economic Times.
Sector activity across global markets
Industrial and logistics
Across multiple regions, industrial and logistics real estate continues to be utilized in support of global supply chains, manufacturing, and distribution networks. Research published by JLL identifies ongoing demand for logistics facilities tied to trade flows, e-commerce, and regional manufacturing activity.
Office
Office market conditions entering 2026 continue to vary widely by city, building quality, and region, as reflected in occupancy, vacancy, and leasing metrics reported across global markets.
Global vacancy: JLL’s global office research reports that office vacancy rates remain elevated in several major markets, with performance diverging sharply between newer, higher-quality buildings and older stock. Prime assets in central business districts have generally recorded higher occupancy and leasing activity relative to secondary assets.
United States: According to PwC & ULI’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2026, overall U.S. office vacancy exceeded 18% in 2024, reflecting significant variation by market and asset quality. The report notes that leasing activity has been concentrated in Class A and newly renovated buildings, while older properties continue to experience higher vacancy.
Europe: JLL research shows that European office markets continue to demonstrate city-specific outcomes, with stronger occupancy levels in select gateway cities and constrained supply of high-quality space in core locations. Development pipelines remain limited in many European markets due to financing and planning constraints.
Retail
Retail real estate activity in 2024–2025 showed measurable movements in occupancy, absorption, and development, illustrating the location-specific nature of this sector heading into 2026.
In the U.S. retail market, JLL data shows that net absorption turned positive in 2025, with 4.7 million square feet of positive net absorption in the third quarter of 2025 after two quarters of decline. Vacancy remained constrained due to limited new construction and demolitions of older space, tightening available stock for leasing. Source.
PwC’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2026 retail outlook notes that retail occupancy recorded gains in 2024, with positive net absorption of 21.2 million square feet in the U.S. market, supported in part by a limited development pipeline.
In Canada, retail markets experienced constrained supply and tight availability rates, with major markets such as Vancouver and Toronto posting some of North America’s tightest retail availability, reinforcing how tenant mix and local conditions drive outcomes in specific cities. LinkedIn
These data points highlight that retail performance diverges sharply by region and submarket, influenced by local development pipelines, consumer demand, and leasing activity, rather than exhibiting a uniform global pattern.
Development and supply conditions
Global commercial development levels entering 2026 are generally below previous peak cycles in many markets.
According to Colliers and JLL, development pipelines differ widely by region and asset class, influenced by financing conditions, construction costs, and local planning environments. In several global markets, new commercial construction activity has slowed compared to earlier years, while select sectors, such as logistics and specialized infrastructure, continue to see targeted development.
Specialized global asset classes
Data centers
Global research highlights continued expansion in data center real estate tied to cloud computing and digital infrastructure. Published summaries referencing JLL research estimate annual growth of approximately 14% between 2026 and 2030 for global data center capacity. Source.
A global framework with local execution
Across all regions, published research consistently reinforces one point: commercial real estate outcomes are driven locally, even within a global economic framework.This is where international collaboration becomes operationally relevant. At Exis Global, member firms operate across markets while sharing a common, data-led foundation. Global research provides the baseline context, while local expertise informs execution, ensuring that decisions are aligned across geographies without assuming uniform market conditions.
