The State of Real Estate Experience (REX) 2026

From Asset Class to Operating Business: CRE’s Defining Decade

The market is not recovering. It is sorting. Trophy assets command 84% rent premiums over commodity space. Vacancy rates for prime buildings run nearly 5 percentage points below the rest. And 23.3 million square feet of commodity stock is heading for conversion or demolition.

The buildings that earn the commute are pulling away. The ones that don’t are becoming obsolete. This report, backed by Leesman’s 1.5 million workplace assessments across 124 countries and market intelligence from CBRE, JLL, and Cushman & Wakefield, makes the case for why the next five years will separate the operators who compound value from the ones who watch it erode.