🚀 Commercial real estate deal volume drops

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Market Overview
Read time 1.4 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. Commercial real estate’s post-pandemic rebound hit a setback in October, with deal volume turning negative year-over-year for the first time since early 2024 as high interest rates and economic uncertainty stall negotiations between buyers and sellers. Despite $24.4 billion in transactions—about 70% of October 2019 levels—the pace of growth has slowed sharply, with industrial and multifamily leading major deals while hotels were the only sector to notch annual gains. Notable transactions included the $231 million sale of the New York Edition hotel as sovereign wealth capital pulls back from NYC, and distressed office sales that highlight both deep discounts and long-term interest in prime locations. Multifamily saw the steepest drop, down 27% from last year, and office properties remain stuck in a rocky recovery marked by repurposing and bargain-hunting.

2. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chips to “approved” Chinese customers so long as Washington takes a 25% cut. Trump claims Chinese President Xi Jinping has welcomed the proposal as part of a broader thaw in trade tensions. The move expands on earlier agreements requiring Nvidia and AMD to share 15% of China sales with the U.S., and comes amid Beijing’s warnings against using the lower-tier H20 chips Nvidia designed for the market. Trump argues the policy will bolster American jobs and manufacturing, with the Commerce Department now finalizing rules that will apply to other chipmakers as well. Nvidia shares briefly rose on the news before paring gains, underscoring how core semiconductor technology remains both the heartbeat of the global AI race and a flashpoint in the U.S.–China rivalry.

3. Fifth Third Bank struck a deal to make fintech firm Brex the provider of its commercial cards and AI-powered expense management tools, opting to partner rather than build its own platform as clients demand more advanced tech. The program will run on Brex’s embedded payments system, which automates card issuance and expense reporting, and comes as Fifth Third moves to acquire Comerica—a merger set to make it the ninth-largest U.S. bank. Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence cast the partnership as a way to blend the bank’s balance-sheet strength with Brex’s innovation to create more efficient, scalable tools for business customers. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

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