The Commercial Real Estate Development Association (CREDA) Research Foundation today released its U.S. Capital Markets Report, H1 2026, finding that commercial real estate investment activity strengthened in the first half of the year.

Transaction volume, pricing and REIT purchasing activity all pointed to growing investor confidence and distress levels edged lower. Net lending to commercial properties, however, slowed in the first quarter of the year as securitized loans paid down faster than they were replaced, and life insurance company lending to non-multifamily commercial properties stalled as well.

Key findings:

• Transaction volume grew for office, industrial and retail properties in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025 but fell slightly for multifamily real estate.
• Growth was strongest for industrial, at nearly 50%.
• Net lending to multifamily properties grew 15.8% year over year in the first quarter of 2026.
• By contrast, net lending to other commercial properties came to a near standstill, at just $3.3 billion, down from $17.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 as securitized loans paid down faster than they were replaced.
• REITs significantly increased their purchasing activity in the first half, expanding total purchases by $6.8 billion (76.6%) and more than doubling their share of office, industrial and multifamily transactions.
• Distress levels are down since the beginning of the year; distress for non-investment-grade commercial properties fell to 1.4%, its lowest level since June 2022.
• The industrial construction pipeline continued to rebound, reaching its highest share of inventory since the end of 2024, while the multifamily pipeline fell to its lowest level in a decade.
• Rising interest rates since the end of the second quarter, including a 25-basis-point Federal Reserve rate increase in September, are expected to weigh on transactions and lending in the second half of the year.

“Growing transaction volume, rising REIT activity and falling distress levels all point to renewed confidence in commercial real estate,” said Marc Selvitelli, CAE, CREDA president and CEO. “While the Fed may have raised interest rates, the fundamentals we're seeing give us real reason for optimism heading into the second half of the year."

The U.S. Capital Markets Report, H1 2026, was authored by Will McIntosh, Ph.D., CEO, ArcBridge Research Group, LLC; Shawn Moura, Ph.D., executive director, CREDA Research Foundation; and Max Shpilband, Research Analyst, Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

The report analyzes economic, capital markets and real estate market data to provide commercial real estate practitioners with insight into the factors shaping the availability and price of debt and equity financing for office, industrial, retail and multifamily investment and development. It draws on historical data from CoStar Group, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Trepp, and identifies the largest developers and transactions by property type. The report is published twice a year; the next edition will be released at the end of 2026.

The full report is available to CREDA members at credaresearch.foundation. Members of the media interested in obtaining a copy may contact Brielle Scott at bscott@credaglobal.org.