FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NAREIM and Ferguson Partners Release 2026 Global Management Survey Findings Industry's Most Comprehensive Study of Real Estate Investment Management Practices Points to Steady Growth, Mounting Margin Pressure, and Three Organizational Imperatives Shaping the Path Forward
[Chicago, June 11th] — The National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM) and Ferguson Partners (FP) released findings from the 2026 Global Management Survey (GMS), the most comprehensive annual study of management practices in the real estate investment management and private equity industry. Now in its 18th year, the GMS draws on responses from 79 firms spanning a wide range of strategies, sizes, and geographies, providing industry leaders with benchmarks across capital raising, financial performance, organizational structure, staffing, and governance.
The Headline: Growth Is Steady. Margins Are Tight.
For the second consecutive year, the median firm reported positive net AUM growth — up 5 percent year over year — with two-thirds of same-store participants increasing net assets. Acquisition volumes rose across small and mid-size firms from 2024 to 2025, and optimism is building: 82 percent of all participants expect acquisition volumes to increase again in 2026.
Yet the growth story comes with a significant caveat. Expenses continue to outpace revenues for many firms, with 59 percent of participants reporting year-over-year expense increases against only 46 percent reporting revenue growth. As a result, the majority of participants saw profitability decline in 2025, which is a trend the survey identifies as a defining challenge heading into the year ahead.
"The data paints a clear picture of an industry that is growing but working harder to protect its economics," said Michelle Yelaska, Vice President at Ferguson Partners. "For the second year in a row, the median firm expanded its AUM, yet expenses are rising faster than revenues across a majority of participants. This tells us that firms can no longer rely on revenue growth alone to solve the efficiency problem. The organizations that will pull ahead are the ones using AI, organizational design, and smarter role structures to grow their AUM faster than their cost base."
Three Organizational Imperatives Defining 2026
Against this financial backdrop, the 2026 GMS identifies three areas where leading firms are focusing their attention:
- AI Is Moving Into the Investment Process — and Governance Must Keep Up
The use of AI and automation is shifting from back-office support toward core investment work. The share of firms prioritizing investment underwriting and modeling as an AI or automation focus area jumped from 8 percent to 29 percent year over year, the single largest movement in the survey's data. Market research and data aggregation also surged, rising 16 percentage points. Meanwhile, 42 percent of firms now have a formal technology committee, though the majority of those bodies remain advisory-only without formal decision-making authority. The survey flags this governance gap as increasingly consequential as AI moves closer to investment decisions.
- Workloads Are Rising Faster Than Headcount
Median headcount growth was flat in 2025, with 48 percent of firms adding employees, 11 percent holding steady, and 41 percent reducing headcounts. Yet workloads continued to climb: the median asset manager is now responsible for 16 properties, up from 13 in 2024, while NOI per asset manager rose from $28 million to $40 million over the same period. With salary and benefit expenses accounting for 42 percent of revenues at the median, firms are increasingly focused on growing AUM faster than headcount. This strategy, however, is only sustainable if work is organized to match the right tasks to the right people and tools. Looking ahead, 67 percent of firms expect to increase headcounts in 2026, signaling cautious optimism about the path forward.
- Succession Planning Stops at the C-Suite
Fifty-seven percent of firms now have a formal succession planning process, but coverage is concentrated almost entirely at the senior leadership level. Only 32 percent of firms offer formal development programs for mid-level professionals, despite this being precisely the cohort expected to absorb expanded portfolios and eventually fill senior roles. The survey identifies this as an emerging operational risk, not merely a talent development gap.
"What we're seeing across the industry is a group of firms that have done the work to protect their senior leadership continuity, but haven't yet extended that discipline one level down," said Mike Cordingley, Managing Director at Ferguson Partners. "Mid-level professionals are already carrying larger portfolios and being asked to produce more with less support, and yet only about a third of firms are investing in their formal development. That is now an operational risk. The firms that recognize this now and build intentional development pathways for that layer of the organization will be better positioned when leadership transitions happen.”
About the Survey
The 2026 GMS Executive Summary is available to all NAREIM members and industry stakeholders. The full participant report of findings which includes detailed benchmarking data across financial performance, capital raising, staffing, workload metrics, organizational structure, and governance is available exclusively to survey participants. To learn more, view the executive summary, or inquire about participation in next year's survey, contact Michelle Yelaska at [email protected].
About NAREIM
The National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM) is the leading association for companies engaged in the real estate investment management business. NAREIM members sponsor funds and other real estate investment programs, as well as develop and manage the assets in which they invest. They serve the investment goals of public and corporate pension funds, foundations, endowments, insurance companies and individuals – domestic and foreign. Collectively, NAREIM members have over $3.4 trillion of assets under management, as well as billions in debt investments throughout the capital stack and around the world. NAREIM members, a variety of entrepreneurial and institutional firms, include real estate fund and separate account managers, REITs, and insurance companies.
For more information, please visit www.nareim.org.
About Ferguson Partners
Ferguson Partners is a global real assets talent management specialist and advisor with a 30+ year track record of servicing our clients’ most important strategic, organizational, and human capital needs. FP’s global team, located in major markets around the world, identifies and secures top talent for real assets businesses and ensures they are onboarded, supported, and positioned for success. Through our complementary practice areas, Strategy & Leadership Advisory, Board & Executive Search, and Compensation Consulting, we work with our clients to develop the right leadership structures, strategies, and financial and compensation foundations for success in today’s intensely competitive marketplace.
Ferguson Partners’ Strategy & Leadership Advisory (S&LA) practice specializes in solving our clients’ complex problems that require bespoke, holistic solutions. Our core service offerings often center around strategy & strategy alignment, operational excellence & change acceleration, and leadership continuity and succession planning.
For more information, please visit www.fergusonpartners.com.