- Dallas and Miami lead the list of cities targeted by commercial real estate investors in 2025, with Boston making a notable return to the top 10.
- While secondary Sun Belt markets continue to offer strong growth prospects, investors are increasingly eyeing gateway markets like NYC, DC, and San Francisco.
- Investors prefer value-add and core-plus strategies, with multifamily still the top choice, although interest in retail and data centers is growing fast.
- Uncertain interest rates and higher operational costs will be the main challenges for investors in 2025. Many plan to maintain their debt-to-equity ratios.
In 2025, CRE investors are optimistic, with a majority planning to ramp up their acquisitions despite ongoing challenges, as reported by GlobeSt.
According to CBRE’s latest Investor Intentions Survey, nearly 70% of investors plan to buy more CRE this year, focusing on cities offering the best growth and value opportunities. Cities like Dallas, Miami, and Boston are seeing the most action, while established gateway markets are making a comeback.
Top Cities For CRE Investors
For the third year running, Dallas has claimed the top spot for real estate investment, followed closely by Miami. The shift this year, however, is in the third spot: Boston edged out Raleigh-Durham, a significant comeback for gateway markets.
The list also sees San Francisco (9) and Washington, DC (8) back in the top 10, while New York City (5) moved up from the seventh spot.
Other cities rounding out the top 10 include Atlanta (4), Raleigh-Durham (6), Austin (7), and Phoenix (10), with Sun Belt markets remaining dominant in secondary cities.
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What Investors Want
The survey revealed that nearly two-thirds of investors still favor value-add and core-plus strategies, focused on improving existing properties or investing in slightly higher-risk assets that offer value appreciation potential.
By contrast, interest in opportunistic, core, distressed, and debt strategies has waned. Despite the hope for bargains, investors are not finding distressed assets in the volume they expected.
- The multifamily sector remains the most sought-after asset class, with 72% of investors indicating interest.
- Retail is seeing consistent growth. In 2025, 27% of investors sought these assets, up from 22% in 2024 and 17% in 2023.
- Interest in office spaces is up slightly, from 10% in 2024 to 13% in 2025.
- Up to 10% of investors are interested in data centers in 2025, from almost no interest in 2023 and 2024.
- Interest in the industrial and logistics sector dropped to 37% from 50% in 2023.
- Hotel interest waned, falling from 23% in 2023 to just 14% this year.
Challenges Ahead
Interest rate uncertainty and the impact of rising costs on operations are the biggest hurdles for CRE investors this year.
Nearly 70% of investors plan to maintain their debt-to-equity ratios from 2024, signaling caution as they navigate a volatile economic environment. Some investors are willing to tolerate up to a year of negative leverage, a sign of flexibility as they adjust to market conditions.
Mortgage and mezzanine financing, along with distressed debt, are top priorities, although interest in these areas is down compared to 2024. These financing methods will likely continue to play a key role in the market as investors seek to balance risk and opportunity.
