Brokers enjoying feel-good factor

Real Estate Weekly, August 10, 2005

A new landmark national survey from Black's Guide, the nation's most comprehensive and industry-leading commercial real estate (CRE) source, reveals today that 89% of CRE professionals feel confident that business will be as good as or better in the next six months as in the prior six months.

This confidence follows a half-decade slump in the commercial real estate industry.

Rather than focusing on where tenants will come from, CRE professionals are focusing on the increased demands of new tenants such as WiFi and food services and the challenges of accelerating development such as traffic issues and delays in construction permits, the survey shows.

Nearly 1,000 commercial real estate professionals nationwide participated in the survey. This respondent pool was drawn from the Black's Guide online registered-user database which consists of over 18,000 commercial real estate professionals--largely brokers, property managers and developers--in 19 markets the company serves around the country.

"The results of our first CRE Trends Survey demonstrate that the commercial real estate industry is experiencing signs of consistent growth after a sluggish five years," say Ed Barnes, vice president and general manager of Black's Guide.

"CRE professionals are back into problem-solving mode, looking for the kind of creative solutions and high-quality information that gets deals done."

Other key themes on the current state of the CRE market that the survey cites include:

* On space requirements: 43% of respondents posted their average space requirement over the last 6 months as between 1,000-5,000 square feet.

* On term of a lease: The majority of respondents (55%) cited 3-5 years as the average term of a lease entered into in their market.

* On deal value: The majority of respondents (58%) noted their average leasing deal was worth up to $500,000 this year; 14% had average deals between $1 million-$5 million.

In all but two of the markets polled, 'banking/finance' ranked as the leading industry to have leased commercial space over the past 6 months.

The Orlando and New Jersey markets noted 'lack of inventory' as their biggest challenge; 41%, and 31%, respectively.

The Jacksonville, FL and New York City markets specified 'creating product differentiation,' 50% and 34%, respectively.