Data centers may be grabbing all the attention in commercial real estate, but they're not the only force driving growth across the industry.
The world's largest brokerage and property services firms are benefiting from an increasingly rare combination: a broad recovery in non-data center real estate markets as a boom in artificial intelligence systems creates new business opportunities.
A drop in construction in office, industrial and apartment markets is helping to limit the amount of space on the market, helping owners after they endured years of elevated interest rates, overbuilding and shifting consumer habits. At the same time, companies racing to build data centers are generating business for site selection and construction management, as well as leasing, financing and operating facilities.
Together, the new business supporting data centers and the recovery in other property types are helping to power stronger leasing, more deals and expanding profit margins at a number of the industry's largest firms.
CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and Newmark all reported double-digit revenue growth in the second quarter, while several raised their annual profit forecasts as commercial real estate fundamentals improved and demand tied to AI infrastructure continued to accelerate.
Risks remain, including elevated borrowing costs, geopolitical uncertainty and continuing weakness among older properties in oversupplied markets. Even so, executives predict strong deal activity through the end of this year, in spite of the volatile global backdrop.
“We have a lot of large transactions in the pipeline with data centers and digital infrastructure, and large office deals coming back,” said Newmark CEO Barry Gosin, who said this month he plans to step down from his role at the end of the year after 50 years with the company. “There is a need for capital, and there is an enormous amount of liquidity."
Non-data center property regains footing
While U.S. spending on data center projects started through June reached $81.5 billion, already exceeding the full-year 2025 total of $72.5 billion, construction pipelines elsewhere have contracted significantly, according to ConstructConnect, a provider of analytical services to construction industry clients.
The result is what the industry considers a healthier balance between the amount of available property and need for that real estate.
Office inventory shrank by roughly 7 million square feet over the past year as owners demolished obsolete properties, helping push the national vacancy rate down to 13.9% from a record 14.2% a year earlier.
The apartment market is moving in a similar direction. Renters absorbed about 164,000 units in the second quarter — exceeding the roughly 118,000 units constructed during the period, according to CoStar analyst Grant Montgomery.
CoStar expects apartment openings to fall 23% this year and another 19% in 2027, pointing to a much tighter supply environment.
Even Austin, one of the nation's most oversupplied apartment markets, is beginning to stabilize. Camden Property Trust executives said business is starting to improve as the wave of new apartment completions begins to slow, with rents rising again in June and July and more properties signing new leases at higher rates.
Industrial real estate is earlier in its recovery cycle, but the warehouse development pipeline is also shrinking as demand continues to absorb excess supply, pointing to a potential turnaround, said Juan Arias, CoStar's U.S. director of industrial analytics.
CoStar expects slower construction and steady leasing eventually to push industrial demand above new supply, setting the stage for lower vacancy and stronger rent growth next year, Arias said.
Less space, more deals
A lack of new construction is heating up competition among companies seeking top-shelf office space.
JLL CEO Christian Ulbrich described a market where premier offices continue to attract tenants and command record rents while older buildings nearby struggle to lease space.
That divide is helping to drive brokerage activity. JLL's global office leasing revenue rose 20% in the second quarter, even as overall market volume increased just 2%.
“We’re encouraged by the underlying business momentum in the first half of the year and the strength of our pipelines across the business, particularly in the U.S.,” JLL Chief Financial Officer Kelly Howe said.
CBRE reported its strongest U.S. second-quarter office leasing results on record, with revenue from those deals climbing 29%. Newmark's leasing revenue increased 17% to a quarterly record, driven by stronger office activity in New York, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Cushman & Wakefield's leasing revenue jumped 27%.
"There is a deep structural demand from a diverse capital base seeking real assets," Michelle MacKay, chief executive with Cushman & Wakefield, the world's third-largest commercial property services firm, told analysts during the company's call this month to discuss its earnings.
Industrial leasing is also strengthening. CBRE's U.S. industrial leasing revenue increased 17%, while Colliers reported 23% leasing growth led by industrial activity.
Major landlords are reporting similar trends. Rexford Industrial cited stronger tenant demand and declining vacancy in Southern California, while Prologis signed a record 67 million square feet of leases during the quarter.
AI growth engine
As traditional property markets improve, CBRE and its rivals say the rapid build-out of AI infrastructure is becoming a bigger share of their business, driving activity from office leasing to data center land sales, construction and facility management.
"The infrastructure boom is most definitely a long-term growth opportunity versus a cyclical, short-term benefit," said Robert Shibuya, CEO of Dallas-based corporate real estate advisory firm Mohr Partners.
Unlike previous recoveries, however, large brokerage firms are not relying on a single property cycle. Many are now benefiting from both an improving transaction market and expanding data center businesses.
"I don't think I ever remember being involved in any area of our business where the revenue synergies were as great as they are in the data center business," CBRE Chief Executive Bob Sulentic told investors.
CBRE's data center solutions business grew nearly 30% to more than $700 million in quarterly revenue.
Cushman & Wakefield said data center-related revenue rose 83% and now accounts for roughly one-quarter of its facilities-management business. JLL managed 340 data centers at the end of the quarter and expects facilities-management capacity under contract to increase by roughly one-third over the next two quarters.
Analysts say AI-related demand is increasingly complementing, rather than replacing, traditional real estate activity.
"While the macroeconomic environment remains a potential risk, we hold the view that larger CRE services firms may be net beneficiaries of AI," Citi analyst Seth Bergey wrote in a recent note. “Overall, the commercial real estate firms continue to benefit from real estate decision makers' willingness to lease space and transact.”
Boosted bottom lines
Even as data centers represent a growing share of revenue for these real estate firms, analysts noted that non-data center transaction revenue from property sales, capital markets and leasing was the strongest performing segments for all of the large services firms.
JLL's revenue rose 11% while profit jumped 92%. Newmark posted record second-quarter revenue, and CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers all reported double-digit revenue growth.
For firms that increasingly operate across infrastructure, engineering, facilities management and investment advisory businesses, executives say the opportunity extends well beyond conventional definitions of commercial real estate.
"Here's what's important to understand: We're no longer talking about the traditional definition of commercial real estate, and we haven't been for quite some time," MacKay said. More broadly, "we're talking about the built world."