Bidding competitiveness across the four main property sectors converges to the narrowest spread in over three years, signaling a more normalized and balanced market in 2026
CHICAGO, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Investment bidding intensity in the commercial real estate market is holding steady and buyer interest remains competitive across property types, even with the supply of investment opportunities increasing. This is according to JLL's Global Bid Intensity Index, a leading indicator for future capital flows that offers a real-time view on liquidity dynamics across global private real estate capital markets through analysis of the firm's proprietary investor bidding data. Despite the rising volume of transactions coming to the market, winning bids continue to be increasingly competitive, driving stability of bid intensity in 2025 and pointing to a more normalized market ahead.
After bidding dynamics in October reached the third-highest monthly gain seen over the past year, underpinned by the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts, investment intensity has been relatively consistent during the latter part of 2025 and into 2026. However, with the lesser number of hotly contested deals on the market relative to previous peaks, this is resulting in some flattening of bidder intensity compared to last quarter.
"While the current conflict in the Middle East introduces significant uncertainty, the global economy is better placed to absorb shocks than it has been in recent years—providing a meaningful buffer under a short-conflict scenario," said Richard Bloxam, CEO, Capital Markets, JLL. "The macro environment is supported by strong property sector fundamentals, more consensus around central banks, a settled interest rate policy and some decreases in macroeconomic volatility, all of which are giving investors continued confidence and renewed willingness to pursue investment opportunities."
In recent years, bidding competitiveness has varied significantly across sectors, since the impact of higher interest rates came to bear in the second half of 2022. Now, activity is converging to the tightest band seen in over three years across the four main property sectors—Multi-family, Industrial & Logistics, Retail, and Office—pointing to more normalized market conditions and broadening investor appetite across sectors and transaction profiles in 2026.
Key sector dynamics include:
- Multi-family: Continues to see the most competitive bidding dynamics, supported by near-record levels of dry powder. While bidding activity leads the other sectors, weaker rent growth, especially in the U.S. is having an impact on investors' underwriting.
- Industrial & Logistics: Bidding competitiveness rebounded in the second half of 2025, notwithstanding that trade policy uncertainty persists.
- Retail: Liquidity is deepening for additional retail asset subtypes, leading to some softening in overall bidding competitiveness as more transactions launch.
- Office: Bidding dynamics are improving compared to the market low point in late 2023, driven by growing bidder pools and a greater number of lenders quoting on office loans.
"Even with more properties available for sale, investors are still competing just as fiercely. As demand grows more balanced across property types, we expect the healthy, active investment market will hold steady as buyer interest remains competitive and continues to diversify," said Bloxam. "While the Middle East conflict has the potential to lead to a further market uncertainty, given the generally healthy economic fundamentals, we anticipate an intensifying capital markets liquidity cycle in 2026."
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About JLL
JLL (NYSE:JLL) is a leading global commercial real estate services and investment management company with annual revenue of $26.1 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of more than 113,000 as of December 31, 2025. For over 200 years, clients have trusted JLL, a Fortune 500® company, to help them confidently buy, build, occupy, manage and invest across a variety of industries and property types, including office, industrial, hotel, multi-family, retail and data center properties. Driven by our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world, we help our clients, people and communities SEE A BRIGHTER WAY. Powered by rich global datasets and leading technology capabilities, we provide coordinated, end-to-end delivery of real estate services for a broad range of global clients who represent a wide variety of industries. Through LaSalle Investment Management, we invest for clients on a global basis in both private assets and publicly traded real estate securities. For further information, visit jll.com.
About Global Bid Intensity Index
The Global Bid Intensity Index measures direct investment market competitiveness through analysis of JLL's proprietary bid data. The index combines three sub-indices to provide forward-looking insights on private real estate capital markets momentum globally, providing investors early signals into where competition and pricing are headed, ahead of third-party data providers.
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SOURCE JLL