Economists' Outlook

Housing stats and analysis from NAR's research experts.

In-Depth on NAR Commercial Members Work By Various Property Types

There were many new additions this year to NAR’s 2018 Commercial Member Profile, and among them was a look at commercial member’s primary service area and the type of property with which they work year around. Of NAR’s commercial members, 51 percent worked in sales, 16 percent in leasing, 12 percent in investment, and nine percent in property management. Consulting, development, and appraisal each accounted for four percent of member’s primary service area.

NAR’s commercial members most frequently worked with commercial properties at 29 percent (defined as property other than traditional office, retail, or industrial spaces and includes mixed use properties). Commercial members also worked with multi-family properties, retail properties, and office space each at 13 percent. Following, members worked with land (12 percent), industrial (11 percent), and residential properties (six percent). Farm and ranches, and hospitality and resort properties both accounted for only two percent of NAR commercial members.

Retail properties were most likely to be leased (31 percent) and managed (22 percent). Multi-family structures most often crossed hands with commercial members for investment purposes (27 percent), and with property managers (22 percent). Appraisers predominantly worked with commercial property (59 percent), followed by land (10 percent) and farms and ranches (10 percent). Office space was also most often leased (28 percent). Developers largely worked with land (27 percent) and commercial property (28 percent).

While only a subset of members worked with farms and ranches (two percent), NAR commercial members sold a median of 13 farms and ranches in 2017. Commercial properties came in as the second most sold property type in 2017 with a median of 11 sales. NAR commercial members sold a median of nine industrial properties and eight office spaces.

Commercial members working with farms and ranches also had the highest median sales volume of any property type at $6.36 million in 2017. The second most frequently sold properties were hospitality and resorts, which had a median sales volume of $5 million in 2017. Office space was less often sold with a median sales volume of $2.64, surpassing only residential properties sold by commercial members with a median sales volume of $1.65 million in 2017. The typical dollar value of sales for farm and ranches was $800,000 and $2.87 million for hospitality and resorts. Retail and industrial properties were just over $700,000 and office space typically sold for $435,500.

Industrial properties were most frequently leased by NAR commercial members, with a median of 11 properties leased in 2017. Office space and commercial properties were the next frequently leased with a median of nine and eight transactions respectively. The median lease transaction volume for industrial properties was $1.68 million compared to $326,900 for multi-family structures.

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