Commercial real estate is back in growth mode, but the playbook has changed. Capital is returning, fundamentals are improving, and investors are increasingly optimistic about 2025 and beyond. Deloitte reports that more than 68% of CRE leaders expect fundamentals such as capital availability, pricing, and leasing activity to improve in 2025—up from just 27% a year earlier. At the same time, JLL finds that 65% of global business leaders expect their CRE budgets to increase through 2030, with a clear focus on technology, flexibility, and experience.
What this means: growth is on the table, but it will accrue to owners and operators with a disciplined digital strategy, not just a good location.
Why Digital Is Now a Core Growth Lever
Digital is no longer just “marketing support” for an asset; it can be a core infrastructure for leasing and asset strategy. Three forces are driving that shift:
- Data-rich decision-making
CRE operators now have access to real-time data on tenant demand, investor appetite, and space utilization. When digital strategies are tightly integrated with leasing CRMs and asset management tools, teams can see which messages, channels, and audiences actually move deals forward. - AI as a force multiplier
Adoption is no longer theoretical. According to JLL, 88% of real estate investors have already started piloting AI and are pursuing an average of five distinct use cases—ranging from underwriting and portfolio analytics to tenant sentiment tracking. CBRE’s 2024 Global Investor Survey similarly found that 85% of institutional investors expect AI tools to become standard in CRE due diligence and asset management.
In practical terms, this means faster comp analysis, smarter targeting, and more accurate forecasting of leasing velocity. - Rising expectations for digital engagement
Tenants, brokers, and capital partners expect consumer-grade experiences: relevant content, retargeted messaging, and frictionless digital touchpoints before they ever tour a space or attend an investor meeting. Properties that stay passive in this environment simply fall off the radar.
Pillars of a Strategic CRE Digital Strategy
To turn this environment into measurable growth, owners and operators should focus on four pillars:
- Full-funnel visibility
Treat digital as a continuous pipeline, not a one-off strategy. Top-of-funnel channels (search, social, programmatic, marketplace listings) should be aligned with mid-funnel tactics like retargeting, thought leadership, and webinar content, all the way through to deal-specific nurture during live pursuits. - Audience-level precision
The goal is not “more impressions”, it’s the right visibility with decision-makers who can sign a lease, approve a budget, or greenlight an acquisition. That means building audience strategies around roles (CFO, Head of Real Estate, local broker teams), not just broad industry or location filters. - Content that signals credibility
Market reports, case studies, and performance data should be baked into strategies to show, not just tell, why a property, fund, or platform is differentiated. In a market where most leaders anticipate revenue growth and budget expansion, capital will favor groups that demonstrate discipline and transparency in how they source and convert demand. - Closed-loop measurement
Strategic growth requires knowing which channels and messages actually shorten time-to-lease, support rent growth, or improve renewal rates. Teams should track metrics that tie directly to outcomes: broker engagement, qualified tour requests, proposal volume, and deal conversion percentages—not just clicks.
CRE is moving from “location plus relationships” to “location plus relationships, powered by data and digital.” As optimism returns and budgets grow, the gap will widen between firms that treat digital strategy as a core growth function and those that still see it as optional marketing spend.
The owners and investors who win this cycle will be the ones who combine strong assets with disciplined, AI-enabled digital strategies that keep them visible and valuable to the people who matter most.
