Note from the Editor: Issue #22

Benjamin van Loon, CAE

Note from the Editor: Issue #22

21 September 202621 September 2026
Benjamin van Loon, CAE, Editor-in-Chief, AFIRE

WELCOME TO ISSUE #22

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When I boil down this issue of Summit Journal to a single theme, it’s the notion that caution is replacing conviction—but not opportunity.

This notion underscores AFIRE’s latest Mid-Year Pulse survey, which opens this issue. The report finds global institutional investors approaching US real estate with a more selective eye, a longer time horizon, and a growing willingness to look beyond traditional property allocations.

Rather than abandoning real estate, investors are reallocating across the broader spectrum of real assets, with infrastructure, private credit, and venture capital gaining ground. The message is less about retreat than recalibration: in a market reshaped by geopolitical volatility, technological disruption, and shifting demographics, capital is becoming more patient—and more demanding.

The articles in this issue extend this topic, rethinking everything at thirty thousand feet (real estate cycles and evolving economic power) all the way down to street level (building use conversions, zombie funds, and lease expirations). The throughline is not fear, but caution.

That caution is most visible in the macro outlook. The US still compares favorably with other global regions for a majority of investors, but confidence has softened.

At the same time, the forces shaping real estate are moving well beyond the traditional boundaries of the sector. Demographic slowdown and declining international migration are raising questions about future labor-force growth, housing supply, and long-term demand—while also putting a premium on the US’s ability to attract and retain global talent.

And then there is affordability. Housing, insurance, and utility costs are putting growing pressure on US households, creating a challenge that increasingly reaches from the consumer balance sheet into the institutional portfolio.

Energy, demographics, infrastructure, regulation, insurance, and affordability are no longer peripheral concerns; they are central to the investment equation.

The opportunity remains substantial, but the rules are changing. In the US real estate market of 2026, winning may depend less on taking more risk than on knowing which risks are worth taking—and having the patience to wait for them to pay off.

– Benjamin van Loon, Editor-in-Chief