How to Cut Through the Noise in Today's Real Estate with Richard Barkham
April 29, 2026
Richard Barkham spent over a decade as Global Chief Economist at CBRE, leading a research team of nearly 600 people. In this conversation, Jonathan Spitz and Storm Murphy sit down with Richard to talk through where we are in the real estate cycle, what risks investors should be paying attention to, and where the best opportunities are today. They also get into the craft of communicating n a fast-moving market — why research firms have moved away from long white papers toward shorter, more digestible content, and the role storytelling plays in translating complex topics.
Richard Barkham spent over a decade as Global Chief Economist at CBRE, leading a research team of nearly 600 people. In this conversation, Jonathan Spitz and Storm Murphy sit down with Richard to talk through where we are in the real estate cycle, what risks investors should be paying attention to, and where the best opportunities are today. They also get into the craft of communicating n a fast-moving market — why research firms have moved away from long white papers toward shorter, more digestible content, and the role storytelling plays in translating complex topics.
A few of the topics covered:
A few of the topics covered:
- Why Richard is more cautious now than he was a year ago
- What today's pricing is really telling us about the market
- How the Fed quietly avoided a banking crisis in 2022 and 2023
- Why the housing shortage makes multifamily the cleanest place to invest right now
- The long-term opportunity in downtown urban cores as offices convert to housing
- Why the "wall of maturities" headlines rarely play out the way people expect
A candid, practical conversation for anyone trying to make sense of the real estate market today.
About the Guest:
Richard Barkham is a globally recognized expert in macroeconomics and real estate cycles. He previously served as Global Chief Economist and Global Head of Research at CBRE, where he led more than 600 research professionals worldwide. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Lecturer in Real Estate at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and Professor of the Practice at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Richard is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and a Counselor of Real Estate (CRE), and he continues to advise institutional investors on navigating global property markets through economic cycles.
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] – Intro
[05:16] – Creating Content That Caters to Shorter Attention Spans
[09:18] – Navigating Shocks: From The Great Financial Crisis To Covid
[20:09] – Banking Stress, The Fed’s Response, And The Wall Of Maturities
[29:07] – Where Should Investors Deploy Capital Today?
[36:20] – Is Now The Time To Seize Opportunity In Commercial Real Estate?
[40:03] – Downtown Revival And The Office-To-Residential Shift
Quotes:
- "You've got to keep pace with how social media is serving up information and content, which is in small bite sized chunks."
- "I'm not convinced that real estate pricing is completely advantageous at the moment. The spread between cap rates and bond rates is about 250 basis points, well below the long term average."
- "Real estate is cyclical, and we've definitely been through the downswing of the cycle. As long as the macroeconomy keeps growing, I think there are opportunities for steady gains in real estate."
- "The pace at which you had to update your view of the market went from quarterly to monthly to almost to weekly, and then you really had to focus hard on keeping in contact with the professionals on the ground."
- "People still want to live and work and play in downtown areas. If you can be part of that in a constructive way, you could see outperformance with patient capital over the next ten or fifteen years."
Episode Resources:
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