Transaction volume rose 14.7% from the $203.7 billion recorded in the first half of the prior year, Avison Young reported.
Commercial real estate transaction volume reached $233.6 billion during the first half of 2026, according to Avison Young. That represented a 14.7% increase from the $203.7 billion recorded in the first half of the prior year.
The increase in deal activity comes after two years in which commercial property sales slowed sharply as buyers and sellers struggled to agree on pricing amid rising interest rates and tighter credit conditions. The uptick suggests liquidity is returning to the market.
Avison Young tracks transactions across office, industrial, retail, multifamily and other commercial property types. The firm compiles data from public records and proprietary deal flow to measure market activity.
The first-half volume reflects completed transactions and does not include deals that were announced but not closed. The figures cover all commercial property sectors and all regions of the United States.
The 14.7% year-over-year gain indicates buyers and sellers are finding common ground on pricing after a prolonged period of market dislocation. Transaction volume had fallen sharply in 2023 and 2024 as the gap between bid and ask prices widened.
The Deployment Angle
Family Office Real Estate Daily Desk · our analysis, not the source's
A 14.7% rise in transaction volume over twelve months means bid-ask spreads have narrowed enough for deals to clear. That creates two deployment routes for family offices. The first is direct acquisition of properties that were frozen during the pricing standoff—sellers who held out for 2021 valuations are now marking to market, which means vintage assets in good submarkets are trading closer to replacement cost. The second is co-GP equity alongside sponsors who need recapitalization partners to meet debt maturities. Many of the transactions in the $233.6 billion total are refinancing-driven sales, and those sponsors will return to market with new projects once they have cleared legacy positions.
The arithmetic matters. If first-half volume was $233.6 billion and the prior-year first half was $203.7 billion, the market added roughly $30 billion in completed trades. That $30 billion represents deals that were stuck in 2024 and are now closing. Family offices should underwrite to the assumption that another wave of $30 billion to $40 billion in transactions will clear in the second half as more sellers accept lower exit prices and as regional banks resume lending at more realistic loan-to-value ratios.
Avoid broad programmatic commitments to diversified funds that treat all commercial property as a single asset class. The $233.6 billion includes office trades that are distressed sales and industrial trades that are cap-rate compression stories. Those require opposite underwriting disciplines. Instead, pursue sector-specific separate accounts or single-asset co-investments where the sponsor has local operating control and where the family office can model the cash flows independently. Rising transaction volume does not mean rising returns—it means the market is functional again, which is when disciplined capital earns the best risk-adjusted outcomes.
