By Capital Markets, we mean the part of real estate finance that connects assets and companies with buyers, lenders, and investors. We use the term broadly: from investment sales, debt and equity advisory, and structured finance to real estate investment banking, M&A, listed REITs, and real estate securities. The common function is bringing assets and capital together, determining the right structure and price, and ultimately getting transactions done.1
Where assets meet capital
Real estate requires a lot of capital and takes time to buy, sell, or build. That makes the markets around it particularly important.
A building can perform exactly as expected while its value changes because interest rates move, lenders become more selective, or investors demand a different return. The asset has not changed. The capital around it has.
That became particularly visible over the past few years. Higher interest rates forced real estate to reprice and slowed transaction activity across markets. Now liquidity is returning: global direct real estate transaction volumes reached $216 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 18% year-on-year.2
At the same time, real estate extends far beyond direct property transactions. More than 1,000 listed REITs operate globally with a combined equity market capitalization of over $2 trillion, connecting physical real estate directly with public equity markets and millions of investors.3 Real estate may be physical, but the capital around it moves daily.
Learning from the firms in capital markets
Capital Markets is therefore an important part of REA’s industry engagement. Across the network, we collaborate with firms including CBRE, JLL, BNPP, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, UBS, and others active across real estate advisory, investment banking, financing, and transactions.
Members engage with the industry through investment cases, inhouse days, site visits, transaction and financing workshops, city trips, conversations with investment professionals, and recruitment opportunities. The aim is to get exposed to the different sides of a transaction, and therefore, to a broad range of businesses & markets.
CBRE, for example, brings investment sales, debt and structured finance, and investment banking together within its Capital Markets business, while firms such as Eastdil advise across property sales, M&A, debt placement, structured credit, and joint ventures. For our members, seeing the industry from these different sides is fundamental. A buyer may focus on the return an asset can generate. A lender looks at how much risk the capital structure can support. A seller thinks about price and timing. An adviser needs to understand all three and in between. REA creates opportunities across all of them.
Why Capital Markets is a core focus for REA
Capital Markets gives our members a particularly broad view of the industry.
Professionals can work across sectors, geographies, buyers, sellers, lenders, and different forms of capital, often seeing far more transactions than someone investing from only one balance sheet.
Our aim at REA is therefore to expose members to how capital actually moves through real estate: across debt and equity, public and private markets, transactions, financing, firms, and geographies. That perspective also connects naturally with our other focus areas. Real Estate Private Equity needs capital to acquire and own assets. Private Credit provides part of the financing. Infrastructure requires enormous pools of both debt and equity. Capital Markets is where many of those participants, structures, and decisions ultimately meet.
For our members, understanding that connection is useful regardless of which side they eventually choose to work on.
Capital Markets is ultimately about understanding what capital wants, what an asset is worth, and how the two can be brought together. Few places give you a better view of how the real estate industry actually operates.
