Every year, with our DNA of #CRE survey conducted with theBrokerList, we survey brokers in firms of all sizes across the country. This is what we found out about brokers in 2017:
Widely-held beliefs about the CRE industry are true. Seventy-seven percent of respondents to our survey were male, and about 76 percent were aged 40 or older. Just under 7 percent of brokers were between the ages of 21 and 29, perhaps indicating that millennials are not interested in pursuing careers as CRE brokers.
In our Broker Predictions survey, 44 percent of respondents said industrial would be the hottest market in 2018. This is despite the fact that they sold or leased office and retail properties the most in 2017. We suspect this is because as consumerism is on the rise, the economy continues to grow, new tech creates higher productivity and major companies like Amazon and Apple expand and build new campuses, brokers expect growth in manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, production and research in 2018 –– and a need for spaces for these industrial activities.
Eighty-four percent of respondents to our Broker Predictions survey said they expect the CRE industry to embrace more technology in 2018. In the past, CRE has been thought of as a tech-averse industry, and clearly, that is no longer the case. Some brokers are already using tools like 3D renderings and virtual reality, and brokers expect these trends to continue into 2018 and beyond.
Want to learn more about what brokers had to say about the state of the CRE industry in 2017? Download the full report of the DNA of #CRE broker survey now.
