Commercial Developers Look Past Near-Term Risk For California Market Growth in 2022

ENR California (August 16, 2019) Despite an expected weakening in commercial real estate (CRE) over the next 18 months, California developers are optimistic the market will return to expansion in 2022, according to the latest Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California Commercial Real Estate Survey. “On average, panelists are saying that in 2022, notwithstanding slowdowns that might be happening in 2020 and 2021, we will see a return to optimism,” says John Tipton, partner at law firm Allen Matkins, which in conjunction with UCLA Anderson Forecast, conducts biannual surveys of developers from major California metropolitan areas. The survey examined trends and the collective outlook of developers working in the office, industrial, retail and multi-family markets. “The uncertainty of China does insert risk, but I think it’s more of a short-term, acute risk as opposed to a long-term kind of structural risk,” says Tipton, who notes that the ongoing trade wars between the U.S. and China are producing little to no erosion in developer confidence so far. Read More