Newmark Capital Markets Stronghold Continues in First Quarter

Newmark (NMRK) continued its capital markets momentum in early 2025 with strong annual growth against the backdrop of potential near-term economic headwinds.

The brokerage giant boosted its year-over-year capital markets volume by 62.5 percent in the first quarter on the heels of a 20 percent yearly growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, the company announced Wednesday morning. Newmark’s capital markets revenue rose 32.7 percent from the year-ago period to help it increase quarterly firm-wide revenue by 21.8 percent to $666.5 million.

“We continue to enhance our capabilities in nearly all verticals and geographies while broadening and diversifying into more service lines and alternative property types,” Barry Gosin, CEO of Newmark, said during Wednesday morning’s earnings call. 

Gosin noted that “potential geopolitical headwinds” could have a “dampening effect” on commercial real estate transaction activity. But as good news goes, Newmark also increased yearly leasing revenues in the fourth quarter by 31 percent aided by “strong double-digit growth” in the office and retail sectors. 

On the balance sheet side, Newmark ended the first quarter with $157.1 million of cash on hand and 1.3 times net leverage, which is down from $197.7 million at the end of the fourth quarter. 

Michael Rispoli, chief financial officer at Newmark, said the change reflected $100 million of “incremental borrowing” under the firm’s credit facilities and cash used for the hiring of  “revenue-generating professionals”

Rispoli said Newmark continues to see strong growth in the second quarter with its transaction pipeline up 10 percent from the year-ago period, but cautioned that the macroeconomic environment creates some unknowns going forward. 

Gosin said deals are proceeding this quarter despite a slowdown in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, with many banks bridging the financing gap with more balance sheet lending. He stressed it is still too early to tell what effect President Donald Trump’s economic policies like tariffs will mean for the CRE market.

“It’s been an active 100 days,” Gosin said. “We’ll see what happens over the next 90 days.”

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com