Commercial Real Estate Asset Types
Commercial real estate spans a range of property types, each with unique investment characteristics, risk profiles, and return drivers. Explore each asset class to understand key metrics, deal structures, and top markets.
Multifamily
Multifamily real estate encompasses residential properties with five or more units, including garden-style apartments, mid-rise buildings, high-rise towers, and student housing. As one of the most actively traded commercial real estate asset classes, multifamily benefits from a fundamental demand driver that never goes away: people need a place to live. This consistent demand profile has made apartments a cornerstone allocation for institutional and private investors alike, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty when housing demand remains resilient.
Industrial
Industrial real estate includes warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, flex spaces, and cold storage buildings. The sector has experienced a structural transformation driven by the explosive growth of e-commerce, supply chain reconfiguration, and the trend toward nearshoring manufacturing. These secular tailwinds have made industrial one of the most sought-after asset classes in commercial real estate, with vacancy rates in many markets sitting at historic lows and rental rates growing at double-digit percentages year over year.
Retail
Retail real estate spans a diverse range of property types including neighborhood shopping centers, grocery-anchored strip malls, power centers, lifestyle centers, single-tenant net lease properties, and regional malls. While the "retail apocalypse" narrative dominated headlines for years, the sector has undergone a significant bifurcation: necessity-based and experiential retail has proven resilient, while commodity retail dependent on discretionary spending and easily replicated online continues to face headwinds.
Office
Office real estate includes Class A towers in central business districts, suburban office parks, creative and flex office space, and medical office buildings. The sector has undergone the most significant structural disruption of any CRE asset class in the post-pandemic era, as the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work models has fundamentally altered space utilization patterns. Office vacancy rates nationally have reached historic highs, and the bifurcation between trophy assets and commodity office space has never been more pronounced.
Hospitality
Hospitality real estate includes full-service hotels, limited-service and select-service properties, extended-stay hotels, resorts, and boutique lifestyle brands. Unlike other commercial real estate asset classes with long-term leases providing predictable income, hospitality operates on a daily "lease" cycle where room rates are repriced every night. This makes hotels one of the most operationally intensive and economically sensitive property types, but also one of the fastest to recover during economic upturns because rates can be adjusted immediately to capture rising demand.
Medical Office
Medical office buildings (MOBs) are specialized healthcare facilities designed to house physician practices, outpatient clinics, imaging centers, ambulatory surgery centers, and other medical service providers. Unlike traditional office, medical office benefits from powerful demographic tailwinds as an aging population drives steadily increasing demand for outpatient healthcare services. The ongoing shift of procedures from inpatient hospital settings to lower-cost outpatient facilities has created a structural growth driver for the MOB sector that is largely insulated from economic cycles and remote work disruption.
Self Storage
Self storage facilities provide rentable units ranging from small lockers to large drive-up bays for individuals and businesses to store personal belongings, inventory, equipment, and other goods. The sector has evolved from a fragmented, mom-and-pop industry into a professionally managed, institutionally recognized asset class driven by strong demographic demand drivers including population mobility, housing downsizing, life transitions (divorce, death, military deployment), and the persistent American tendency to accumulate more possessions than living space can accommodate.
Mixed Use
Mixed-use real estate combines two or more property types within a single development, most commonly blending residential, retail, and office components in vertically integrated buildings or horizontally planned districts. The sector has gained significant momentum as urban planning trends favor walkable, live-work-play environments and municipalities incentivize higher-density, transit-oriented development. Mixed-use properties are often the centerpiece of urban revitalization and suburban town center projects, creating synergies between complementary uses that strengthen the overall investment.
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