First Draft Live Ep 16: Paused, Not Canceled: Inside CRE’s Next Cycle (with Sally Ann Flood)

The optimism that permeated commercial real estate at the start of 2025 has died down as the year has gone on.

That's the headline from Deloitte's annual CRE executive survey, but Deloitte partner Sally Ann Flood said on this week's episode that the responses showed an increasingly bifurcated market. Some asset classes, like data centers and warehouses, are "red hot," while investors are still grappling with distress in office and multifamily.

But Flood said the most important theme to come out of this year's survey is the technological inflection point the industry has reached.

“The technology revolution is here for real estate. I really believe this is the time that we can embrace it and really see improvements to the bottom line by adopting the technology.”

From companies embracing AI to digitize leases, partnerships between big tech, real estate companies and energy providers and increased operational efficiency, Flood says this is the year the notoriously tech-averse industry leaps into the digital age.