Commercial real estate brokers optimistic about Phoenix area
May 7, 2018, 4:00 AM
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX — A recent survey of commercial real estate brokers found optimism for growth in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
While some uncertainty and a cautious attitude among respondents remained, the survey found that the type of real estate growth seen over the last few months has the “commercial brokerage community feeling positive.”
The Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School of Business conducted the survey. About 200 commercial real estate brokers responded.
“The overarching takeaway is there is substantial optimism,” said Mark Stapp, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice. “Those results give us a clue as to what people see the market likely doing over the next six months.”
A whopping 92 percent of respondents said the commercial real estate market in the Phoenix metropolitan area was moving upward.
The survey is conducted every six months and the most recent results were similar to previous ones. The biggest difference was in the percentage of respondents who said the commercial real estate market in the Phoenix metropolitan area was “in an expansion mode.”
According to the survey, 90 percent of respondents said in October 2015 that they thought the market was in an expansion mode. That fell to 52 percent in October 2016 and rose steadily again to 67 percent in the recent survey.
“I think what that reflects is the fact that this is a slow steady growth,” Stapp said. “We thought we would get this real rapid expansion like we’ve had in other recoveries, and we didn’t.”
He said the slow steady growth has to do with “significant constraints.” That includes labor, cost of materials and available land for development.
“That has really kept a damper on rapid expansion,” Stapp said.
