Commercial real estate services stocks down on ‘AI scare trade,’ says Keefe

Keefe Bruyette says commercial real estate services stocks are under pressure today as investors rotate “out of high-fee, labor-intensive business models viewed as potentially vulnerable to AI-driven disruption.” The current selloff may overstate the immediate risk to complex deal-making, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Keefe views the long-term AI impact as “wait-and-see.” It points out that industry transaction volumes were strong in Q4 while commercial mortgage real estate investment trust earnings have shown “ongoing strong capital deployment.”