CBRE, the world's largest real estate services firm, posted record fourth-quarter revenue that was bolstered by increased data center deals, leasing transactions and property trades.
The Dallas-based firm said revenue climbed 12% to $11.6 billion as annual revenue rose 13% to a record $40.6 billion. Earnings also hit new records for the quarter and fiscal year, CBRE said, with core earnings-per-share reaching $2.73 in the fourth quarter and $6.38 for the year. The record earnings come only two years after the real estate downturn had it in cost-cutting mode.
"We saw significant gains in sales and leasing in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, and our resilient businesses continued to post double-digit revenue growth — a trend we see continuing," CBRE Chair and CEO Bob Sulentic told investors and analysts during the firm's fourth-quarter and year-end earnings call Thursday.
"We continue to build businesses that are benefiting from secular tailwinds," Sulentic said, citing the acquisition of Pearce Services as adding to the firm's data center services. CBRE bought Pearce Services, a provider of advanced technical support related to digital and power systems, for $1.2 billion in November.
CBRE's data center and digital infrastructure services contributed 14% to its bottom line, helping the firm position itself for "strong, sustained growth," Sulentic added. CBRE's data center business is expected to add $2 billion to the firm's revenue in 2026.
The company is the first major real estate services firm to post its fourth-quarter earnings and year-end financial results, with JLL, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers set to report in the next few days. CBRE's earnings could set the tone for what other firms report.
CBRE's financial gains have the firm taking time to "streamline our operations" and "investing to ensure this growth continues further into the future," Sulentic said.
"We expect another good year in 2026," he said, adding that CBRE's forecast with core earnings per share between $7.30 and $7.60 reflect 17% growth in the mid-point range. "This will be driven by healthy growth by resilient and transactional businesses."
CBRE's stock continued its fall this week after the earnings report, as shares of other major real estate services firms such as JLL and Cushman & Wakefield slid on concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence on the real estate industry.
Even so, Jefferies analyst Joe Dickstein was quoted by Bloomberg saying the "AI threat to the leasing and capital markets businesses is limited," with CBRE and its peers benefitting from "meaningful scale, both from data and industry relationships, and their position as the intermediaries for large leases and large transactions is unlikely to change."
AI efficiencies
CBRE has already been using AI to gain business efficiencies, Sulentic said, adding that he sees risks and opportunities related to AI for the real estate industry.
"CBRE has more real estate data than any company in the world," Sulentic said, but the firm has yet to turn this knowledge base into a competitive advantage. "With the use of AI, we are moving toward gaining advantages that are more proportioned to the data advantage that comes with our market position."
In reviewing potential AI risks, Sulentic said CBRE divides its businesses in three ways: transactional deals, creating or improving physical real estate and operating assets.
"The transactional and investment work we do is the most protected from AI disruption," he said. "Clients engage CBRE to plan and execute complex transactions because of our creativity, strength, strategic planning, negotiating skills, deep base of market knowledge, and broad relationships. None of this seems likely to be replaced by AI in the foreseeable future."
That complexity of CBRE's business can also be seen as the firm helps create or revamp properties, as well as manage properties, with these businesses being labor intensive and in need of on-the-ground professionals, he said.
The strong financial performance of 2025 shows how CBRE benefits from the AI boom, he added.
"On balance, when you add all of this up, there will be risks, risk mitigants, and opportunities in our business associated with AI," he said. "We are optimistic that the net impact will benefit CBRE in the long run."
And Sulentic told investors the firm is investing in talent and hiring top performers.
"You have to have the best talent in the industry and we're making those investments," he added. "Looking into 2026, we expect to continue to do the same."
Leasing, sales gains
In addition to data centers boosting CBRE's bottom line, sales and leasing activity also experienced double-digit growth in the fourth quarter.
Leasing revenue grew 14% globally, with strength in the United Kingdom and Europe. Leasing revenue in the United States grew 12%, the firm said, led by an increased demand for data centers and industrial space with a strong appetite for big-box space coming from third-party logistics providers, said CBRE's Chief Financial Officer Emma Giamartino.
"We saw large industrial occupiers act in advance of upcoming lease expirations, often upgrading their space," Giamartino said, adding that U.S. office leasing remains strong, reaching record levels in the quarter and full year 2025.
Industrious, the flexible workplace operator CBRE acquired in January 2025, is "growing profitably," Giamartino said, and CBRE plans to expand the business to more than 300 locations by the end of the year, up from about 200 locations when CBRE bought the company.
CBRE's capital markets business also jumped, with U.S. sales revenue rising 27%, led by office and apartment trades. Even so, sales revenue for both property types remain well below their historic peaks.
Even though CBRE had "another good year" for sales and financing activity, Sulentic warned the business is expected to have a slow recovery.
"This isn't a business that's rapidly returning to peak levels like some of our other businesses," he said. "We expect this to be a slow, steady recovery. The first quarter started out strong and we're encouraged by that, but we don't expect to see a big rapid rise in that part of our business this year — just some nice double-digit growth."