CBRE Tops Analysts’ Expectations in Q3 Earnings Amid Strong Leasing

CBRE’s third-quarter earnings results for 2025 grew year-over-year, topping analysts’ expectations for the quarter as the real estate services and investment giant’s four main business segments — advisory services, building operations and experience, project management and investment — continue to outperform in the market. 

The firm reported core earnings per share of $1.61, a 34.2 percent rise over the same quarter last year, and above the $1.47 per share the Zacks Consensus Estimate predicted. Revenue for the quarter climbed 14 percent to $10.3 billion, a 13 percent year-over-year rise that beat the Zacks estimates by 3.4 percent. 

“CBRE continued to produce excellent results in the third quarter,” CEO Bob Sulentic said Thursday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “All four segments delivered strong growth and operating leverage, and we exceeded expectations we had going into the quarter.” 

CBRE noted that office leasing, particularly in the U.S., was strong, helping drive the growth in revenue. 

“Global leasing revenue rose 17 percent, accelerating from the second quarter despite a tougher year-over-year comparison,” Chief Financial Officer Emma Giamartino said during the call.  “In the U.S., leasing reached its highest level for any third quarter, growing 18 percent.” 

The most surprising results for the quarter, according to Sulentic, was the resurgence of office leasing in gateway markets.

“They were really strong, New York in particular, San Francisco in particular,” Sulentic said of the gateway markets. “But if you look over the course of the last 12 months, I think it’s fair to say, our expectation is that you’re going to see broad-based growth in office building leasing.” 

Sulentic noted that some experts are still referring to this current period of leasing in terms of coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but CBRE doesn’t see that as part of the officer leasing story anymore. 

“People still talk about the return to the office. We don’t really talk about it that way,” he said on the call. “I would say it’s more of a return to the mean. In other words, COVID is so far in the rearview mirror. All the arguments pro and con on office space have kind of disappeared, and people are thinking about it more like they thought about it before.”

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.