“I don’t think a lot of people realize how global our industry has become.” That’s Gunnar Branson, CEO of Afire, on the interconnected nature of commercial real estate in 2026. In the inaugural episode of CREative Insights, a new podcast series from Connect CRE and NAIOP SoCal, Hanson shared insights on cross-border investment and the priorities and concerns of institutional investors generally.
The current landscape of overseas investment into U.S. markets is not as different when compared to two years ago as one might think, Branson observed. Although European players may be concerned and even angry about tariffs and other geopolitical tensions that have arisen over the past year, they’re still investing here, he pointed out. The U.S. continues to be seen as the safest market for deploying capital.
“The reality is, we are in that sweet spot right now in the cycle where valuations have been accepted at a lower level, where people are seeing opportunity, where a lot of capital is moving in a way that it wasn’t six months ago,” Branson told Connect CRE founder and CEO Daniel Ceniceros and EVP and co-founder Sarah Quinn at the recent NAIOP I.CON West conference.
In the video below, you’ll hear further insights from Branson on investor preferences and concerns and the continued bottom-line importance of sustainability.
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