The AFIRE Podcast

Institutional investors are in the business of predicting the future, and one of their most valuable resources is the PwC Emerging Trends in Real Estate report. Produced jointly with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and drawing on perspectives from approximately 1,500 industry leaders and other real estate investment professionals, the 48th edition was released during ULI’s annual Fall Meeting in Mi...

Japanese investors now own about 6% of the US home-construction market, according to the Wall Street Journal,, and Japan-linked investors have purchased at least $2.1B worth of NYC real estate since 2024. What’s clear is that amidst geopolitical volatility and shifting global economic dynamics, cross-border capital flows are changing. Cross-border real estate investment into the United States from...

Things don't always work out the way we expect. And in fact, many of AFIRE’s institutional investors mark their resilience as leaders in terms of how many downturns they’ve weathered. So how do the best leaders, and the best organizations, manage failure? What systems do they have in place to analyze mistakes and improve in the future? Donald Sheets, lecturer in real estate at the Harvard Graduate...

In an environment when everyone in US commercial real estate is basically making the same pitch, why are some firms more successful than others at raising capital? Why are some firms more successful than others at getting the deal? In this episode, AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson discusses these questions with the founder, chairman and CEO of Institutional Real Estate Inc., Geoffrey Dohrmann. Branson and...

A nationwide housing crisis is pricing out millions of would-be homeowners. Conventional wisdom suggests the problem is demand, as in, too much of it. But what if the problem instead involves the supply side of the equation — namely, how and where we build? In conversation with Tony Avila of Avila Real Estate Capital, AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson explores why attainable single-family homes are so scar...

How can investors gain a competitive edge when seeking deals in the hospitality sector? How can hotels use AI to improve the guest experience? And how can hospitality operators use AI to run hotels more efficiently? AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson explores the topic with the co-founder and managing partner of AWH Partners, Russ Flicker, about how his $2 billion hospitality platform leverages proprietary...

What happens when uncertainty shakes the global economy, and investors start questioning where to put their money? In this episode, AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson talks with Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi about slowing job growth, shifting trade and immigration policies, and the market volatility that has investors eyeing gold, silver, crypto, and real estate. Zandi highlights both the ris...

What is the future of the built environment? The National Building Museum in Washington, DC, where AFIRE members tour this week during our Winter Conference, is a museum about the world we design and build. The museum’s exhibits celebrate building architecture, design, engineering, construction—and the act of urban planning. But most of all, it’s a showcase for the imagination and ambitions of tho...

Can office buildings from the 1970s and 80s–often dismissed as "garbage”—be the key to solving the US housing crisis? While conventional wisdom says these deep-floor-plate structures are "useless" and that we need to "scrape" them all, Robert Seldin, Managing Principal of Madison Highland and developer of the Three Collective complex in Falls Church, Virginia, has proven the skeptics wrong. In thi...

How will demographics affect commercial real estate investing? How will changes in generational characteristics affect opportunities in US property markets? Neil Howe is an author of The Fourth Turning and The Fourth Turning is Here. An expert in generational demographics who is credited as one of the coiners of the term “millennial”, Howe discusses the cycles of history and their implications for...

The One Big Beautiful Bill is now signed into law, prompting questions about tax risks, retaliatory measures, and impacts on U.S. real estate. So what does it all mean for cross-border investors in property markets? AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson sat down with DLA Piper tax partner Shiukay Hung to discuss the impact of the bill. “The Big Beautiful Bill is a very interesting piece of legislation,” says H...

For the first time ever, New York City Economic Development Corporation is staging a special Investor Summit in collaboration with AFIRE for international institutional capital that's focused on US property investing. With the summit in mind, AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson sat down with chief operating officer of NYCEDC, Melissa Román Burch, for a pulse check on New York City’s CRE environment. “New Yor...

Geopolitics is rewriting the rules for commercial real estate investors. Can understanding history’s patterns be the key to figuring out what’s coming next? Who better to answer the question than Chair of War Studies at the U.S. Army War College, Michael Neiberg, who uses his expertise of Europe and the U.S. from 1914-1945 to offer valuable insights into today’s global challenges by drawing parall...

We’ve entered a new era of geopolitics. From globalization and free trade stabilized by American soft power, we’re now in a more transactional period characterized by nation states weaponizing their economies with tariffs, a global leadership vacuum and greater competition among the superpowers. So should this affect cross-border investment strategies? And can earlier periods in history teach us l...

Despite geopolitical uncertainty and trade tensions, the US economy remains strong, says our latest guest on the AFIRE podcast: Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi, the recipient of the Consensus Economics 2024 Forecast Accuracy Award. “So far, the data shows yellow flares everywhere,” Zandi observes. “But no red flares yet.” In conversation with AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson, Zandi shares his views on...

The US needs nearly 4 million homes. That’s a deficit that’s been decades in the making. Years’ worth of zoning restriction pile-ups, underbuilding, and policy interference have hindered the ability to plan, build, and maintain affordable homes across America. “We're putting requirements in place before we have the foundational infrastructure in place to provide it,” says CEO of Up for Growth Mike...

Neville Rhone, Jr. is the co-founder and managing partner at Arc Capital Partners, a leading institutional real estate owner and investment manager. Arc is focussed on converting mixed-use properties instead of tearing down and building new. Rhone also is someone who’s poised to find opportunities in challenging environments. So where are these opportunities hiding? ”Everything that we do is in th...

Brian Klinksiek thinks we’re turning a page to a new market in 2025. “Even with what’s happened with long interest rates, there’s so much other stuff,” says Klinksiek, the global head of research and strategy at LaSalle Investment Management. “We’ve got prices more in line with where bond markets are… we have valuations that have caught up with prices, the denominator effect that is resolved, you’...

The next five years are expected to bring groundbreaking tech advancements in augmented (AR) and virtual (VR) reality. Real estate—a traditionally unhurried adopter of new tech—isn’t immune to this shift, and while this could bring about new revenue streams for property owners, it also creates potential liabilities. Are real estate owners prepared? To learn the answer, we consulted with Neil Mandt...

In 2024 commercial real estate investors were confronted with tremendous changes. What’s the biggest change that will surprise us in 2025—and how should the investment community adjust to those changes? That’s just one of the topics we tackle in the latest episode of our podcast series talking with commercial real estate experts about the year ahead. Jim Costello is the Chief Economist for MSCI Re...

How will we get out of the problems in the office sector in the US? How will we solve the housing crisis? Will we see an escalating environment of global trade tensions getting in the way of cross-border investing? What do you do if you can’t count on dropping interest rates? Spencer Levy is the global client strategist and senior economic advisor at CBRE—and someone who’s never afraid to tell you...

Contrary to reports of the death of office, demand for certain classes of office space is coming back so strong that New York City developers are struggling to meet the demand. Melissa Román Burch is New York City Economic Development Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, and says, “Office is making a comeback. We fundamentally do not have enough class A and A+ office space in New York City, and...

We left 2024 expecting surprises from political change and geopolitical shifts. But according to Rebecca Rockey, Deputy Chief Economist and Global Head of Forecasting at Cushman & Wakefield, the actual surprise in store during the year ahead may be how little things change. For example, some anticipate a widespread sell off of distressed commercial real estate assets in 2025. But Rockey believes t...

Our special New Year series provides themes to monitor in the year ahead for commercial real estate investors. This episode of the AFIRE Podcast features R. Byron Carlock Jr., PWC’s former US real estate leader and AFIRE’s current director of legal and tax, discussing the most important investment to make in 2025. AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson asks Carlock: You can make one bet in 2025—what is that inv...

What are the markets that commercial real estate investors are focused on in 2025? Will markets even matter this year? And which markets are best positioned to outperform? Sabrina Unger is the managing director and the head of research and strategy at American Realty Advisors—and one of the people AFIRE turns to for nuanced commentary on what’s really going on in commercial real estate. “Market se...