Real Estate Deals 2026: Institutional Capital Drives the Work

Real estate law firm deals are institutional work. Sartori & Partners data show 1,409 dated real estate deals in the 12 months to October 2026, for 821 distinct clients, and the client list is dominated by owners of property and the investors behind them. Real estate companies appear in 59.0% of the deals and asset managers and funds in 11.1%, far above their weight in the deal market as a whole. The volume grew over the last year, yet the practice added lateral partners at a steady pace rather than a faster one. For a firm leader, the question is less whether the work exists than whether the bench is built for the clients who send it.

Real estate companies, from developers to listed property owners, appear in 59.0% of real estate deals. Across all dated deals the same client group appears in only 4.5%, so the practice leans on it 13.1 times as hard as the market does. Asset managers and funds come next at 11.1%, against 4.9% of all deals. Hospitality and leisure follows at 5.0%, 3.6 times its market share, as hotels and resorts trade as property as much as businesses.

Financial sponsors are the exception. Private equity houses appear in 4.0% of real estate deals, below the 6.9% they reach across the deal market. Much institutional money reaches property through dedicated real estate funds run by asset managers, which is where the second client group comes from. Government and public sector clients add 3.0%.

For a firm hiring a real estate partner, the client test is concrete. A book built on property companies serves the core of the work. A book that also carries asset managers covers the second client group, which repeats its mandates across portfolios and funds.

Transactions classed as real estate make up 77.4% of the practice's deals. Disputes and investigations account for 6.0%, M&A for 4.3% and banking and lending for 2.3%. Across all dated deals, real estate transactions are only 2.8% of the total, while M&A is 19.3%.

In the Sartori & Partners deal records, the real estate practice is credited on 80.5% of all dated real estate transactions. Corporate and finance lawyers take part in some of the rest, but the core property work rarely leaves the practice. The funds practice shows the same boundary from the other side: real estate transactions are 2.0% of funds deals, and real estate companies appear in only 2.4% of them. Asset managers are the clients in 64.3% of funds deals, so the same investors hire funds lawyers to raise the money and real estate lawyers to put it into buildings.

The consequence for recruiting is that the pool of transactional property partners is narrow. A funds or corporate partner rarely brings real estate deal flow, so a real estate team is built by hiring from other real estate groups, or by promoting from within.

19.0% of real estate deals publish a value, against 25.1% in funds and 47.7% in banking and finance. Where a value is published, the median real estate deal is $251.4 million. Corporate and M&A sits at $315 million and funds at $1,100 million, so a typical property deal is smaller than the fund that may stand behind it. Many asset purchases, leases and joint ventures close with the price left private, and the median describes only the deals that disclose one.

For diligence on a lateral book, that means most claimed deal sizes cannot be checked against public figures. Ask a candidate for the deal list with values marked as public or private, and test the private ones through references.

Sartori & Partners records show real estate deals rose 9.6% on settled windows, from 1,276 in the 12 months to September 2025 to 1,398 in the 12 months to September 2026. All dated deals rose 10.6% over the same windows and the funds practice's deal count held flat (+2.8%), so property work kept pace with the deal market while the funds work behind it held level.

Lateral partner hiring in real estate tells a different story. The count of partner moves into the practice held flat (-8.6%), at 435 against 476 the year before. Across all practices, lateral partner hiring rose 8.4%. Hiring below partner carried the growth: all real estate laterals rose 7.9%, and associates were 56.4% of movers in the last 12 months.

More deals on an unchanged partner count means more work per partner. Rivals are adding associates to carry the volume, not partners to win it, which leaves the partner market for real estate thinner than the deal figures suggest. A firm that wants a rainmaker should expect to compete for a short list.

Greenberg Traurig ranks first by real estate deals advised, in the 41-60 band, with CMS and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader in the same band. The same firm also ranks first among real estate lateral hirers, in the 41-60 band of lawyers hired, and Dentons and DLA Piper appear on both lists. The adviser list is not concentrated: the tenth firm, Cole Schotz, sits in the 21-40 band, just one band below the leaders.

For a firm outside the list, the flat adviser table is an opening. No group controls the work, so the distance to the top 10 is shorter than in a concentrated practice. The firms already there are recruiting too, so the offer has to rest on the clients the partner will reach.

Hire for the clients. Real estate companies appear in 59.0% of real estate deals and asset managers in 11.1%. A partner who serves both groups covers the core and the institutional money behind it; a partner whose book rests on sponsors serves a client group this practice under-weights.

Recruit from real estate groups. The practice handles 80.5% of all property transactions, so property deal flow rarely comes with a funds or corporate partner. Price the book with care: only 19.0% of deals disclose a value, at a median of $251.4 million.

Move before the partner market tightens. Deals rose 9.6%, while lateral partner hiring in the practice held flat (-8.6%). The work per partner is rising, and the partners who carry it are busy. Plan the search a quarter ahead, and build the associate tier under the hire at the same time.