Dive Brief:
- Cushman & Wakefield grew its leasing fee revenue 7% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2024, with growth driven by strong results in the Americas, according to the firm’s earnings report, released Feb. 20.
- The Americas region’s total fee revenue grew to $1.33 billion in the fourth quarter, which accounted for 71% of the firm’s revenue that quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s earnings presentation. Growth in leasing, capital markets and its valuation and other segments offset a decline in services revenue.
- Cushman & Wakefield’s Americas services revenue fell 2% year over year in the fourth quarter, to $609 million, or 52% of the firm’s region's Q4 fee revenue. The business trends remained largely stable, with the revenue decline primarily driven by the offloading of a non-core services business, the firm said.
Dive Insight:
Cushman & Wakefield’s service line fee revenue grew 4% year over year in Q4, to $1.87 billion. In the Americas, the firm’s capital markets segment increased Q4 revenue 33% year over year, to $183 million. Leasing in the region grew 12% in the fourth quarter, rising to $488 million, and it accounted for 33% of Americas fee revenue.
“America's leasing remains a key area of strength, growing 12% in Q4 for the second straight quarter of double digit growth, and was solid across deal sizes and asset classes,” Chief Financial Officer Neil Johnston said Thursday on an earnings call. “As tenants continue to seek out high-quality spaces, we expect continued strength in 2025, supported by a resilient U.S. economy and increased return-to-office trends.”
Despite declines in service revenue, Cushman & Wakefield’s facilities management and non-core property management business saw a return to growth in the fourth quarter, Johnston said.
“80% of our services business comes from recurring contracts. We’re starting to see some nice wins, which will certainly help the back half of the year, especially in our global occupy services business and in our property management business,” Johnston said. “But 20% is project management. That's the part where, once we start seeing momentum, that'll pick up quite quickly, but it will take a while.”
The fourth quarter was one of the strongest quarters of office demand since the pandemic, with nearly half of markets Cushman & Wakefield tracks showing positive absorption, CEO Michelle MacKay said on the earnings call.
“An important data point is that leased space has peaked and is trending lower, indicating businesses are taking back space and using it again, [and] return to office is quite clearly trending higher,” MacKay said. “The list of companies mandating three, four or five days a week [in-office] is growing. It's absolutely trending to more in- office attendance, and the quality bias remains high, which means higher rents.”
