In 2022, Philadelphia-based development firm Post Brothers bought two office buildings on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., with plans to convert them into approximately 530 residential units. Despite the site’s proximity to Dupont Circle and a coveted residential area, assembling a viable capital stack proved more challenging than anticipated. Ultimately, a $465 million Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan from Nuveen Green Capital in December of 2025—billed as the largest ever originated under the program—made the conversion possible.

National Harbor, Maryland, would become the second U.S. location and the first to utilize a smaller-scale venue design model; the project would receive approximately $200 million in state, local, and private incentives.

Developers have been confronting several challenges in terms of supply, demand, and costs that are making it more difficult to break ground on new projects. Yet the total dollar value of overall construction starts is expected to grow 4 percent, to $1.26 trillion, in 2026, according to Dodge Construction Network. Industry experts share their view on where things will shake out as new projects gear up for 2026.

Three existing federal tax incentive programs that have been used frequently by developers received significant upgrades in this summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) have long provided gap equity for affordable housing projects all over the country. New markets tax credits have been providing gap funding for a wide variety of economic development projects for more than 25 years. More recently, Opportunity Zones have steered investments in projects in low-income communities. The Big Beautiful Bill made improvements to each of these programs.

The National Retail Federation predicts a record-breaking 2025 holiday season, with U.S. sales for November and December projected to grow between 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent—pushing total holiday sales past $1 trillion for the first time. Yet there also are signs that consumers are nervous; that mood, plus accounting for inflation, could leave holiday spending relatively flat.

Canada’s real estate market remains deeply challenged: Although 2026 isn’t expected to deliver a rapid rebound, there is growing recognition that the next cycle will not mirror the last. Instead, the industry is entering a generational transition that demands new strategies, partners, and capital sources, as well as a fundamental modernization of how companies operate. A record-breaking crowd of more than 500 real estate leaders heard the “balanced but cautiously optimistic” 2026 outlook at the 21st Annual “ULI Toronto Trends in Real Estate” event at the Fairmont Royal York hotel.

Molly Maybrun, chief development officer of local developer Fifth Space, and Wallace Whittier, senior real estate officer for University of California, San Francisco, spoke at the 2025 ULI Fall Meeting about their collaboration to build a new proton therapy cancer center at Fifth Space’s Dogpatch Power Station, a multiphase master-planned mixed-use development on the waterfront at the southern edge of San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

The 2026 Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific report, published jointly by ULI and PwC found a mood of cautious optimism among real estate professionals; however, respondents described considerable disparities in markets and sectors across the region. Tokyo was ranked as the top city for investment in the Emerging Trends survey, top of the table for the third consecutive year, followed by Singapore, Sydney, Osaka, and Seoul.

While the full impact of the pandemic has yet to be realized, commercial real estate faces new uncertainties, including questions about the AI boom’s longevity, the spending strength of the U.S. consumer, and debt sustainability. In response to increased competition for quality deals, commercial real estate firms are restructuring their operations, using diverse data sources, accessing new capital, and forming new partnerships.

Economic forecasters gathered on Thursday, November 6, at the ULI Fall Meeting at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco to analyze the current landscape and future expectations for the economy. The ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast, a semiannual survey of leading industry experts, served as the backdrop for discussions about how 33 key economic and real estate indicators are projected to move by the end of 2025, 2026, and 2027.