Skip to content

Cbre Group

NYSE: CBRE · USD

Cbre Group (CBRE) Economic Moat Analysis56

Competitive advantages, dated evidence and erosion risks.

Narrow economic moat

CBRE has a narrow moat from its established global service franchise, proprietary knowledge and moderate switching friction in facilities management and loan servicing. Repeated institutional penetration, multi-year contracts and sustained organic servicing growth support current advantages. Similar rival capabilities, uneven local strength and integration challenges constrain durability. Third-quarter 2026 growth supports commercial relevance, but greater property-disposition gains complicate underlying profitability. Realized fee-rate pricing power remains unestablished; disclosed contracts offer limited demonstrated repricing freedom. Onnec remains pending, so its customer relationships and projected results do not establish CBRE’s current moat.

Intangible assets

An established institutional franchise, integrated international capabilities and proprietary construction-cost knowledge support CBRE’s ability to win complex mandates. Nearly 90% Fortune 100 penetration in both 2024 and 2025 corroborates commercial relevance; claimed superior customer outcomes remain management assertions.

Durability
Replicating the accumulated relationships, local expertise and knowledge platform requires sustained investment. Successive-year institutional penetration and seven years of organic servicing growth support persistence, but do not establish exclusive capabilities or exceptional durability.
Competitors
Comparison not established
Erosion risks
Large rivals have similar capabilities, competitive strength varies by market and service, and key producers can leave. Acquisition integration has presented actual challenges. Scale alone establishes neither lower unit costs nor network effects.
What would invalidate the thesis
Sustained loss of institutional penetration or complex multi-market mandates, accompanied by organic servicing contraction or evidence that comparable rivals routinely replace CBRE without service disruption, would undermine the franchise advantage.
Evidence (5) · Counterevidence (4)

Switching costs

Daily building operations under multi-year facilities contracts create moderate continuity and implementation friction. Retained loan-servicing rights provide another continuing relationship. These support bounded operational dependence rather than demonstrated contractual customer lock-in.

Durability
Facilities responsibilities persist over contract terms, while servicing relationships continue after loan sales. Seven-year organic servicing growth supports continuing demand. The passages do not establish renewal rates, termination penalties or customer migration costs.
Competitors
Comparison not established
Erosion risks
One-off advisory engagements have weaker dependence. CBRE’s upfront transition spending is its own implementation cost, not proof of a customer exit penalty. Comparable providers can contest contracts, and integration difficulties may weaken service continuity.
What would invalidate the thesis
Repeated losses of major facilities renewals, sustained organic servicing contraction, or demonstrated customer migrations with negligible operational disruption would invalidate the inferred switching friction.
Evidence (5) · Counterevidence (3)

Changes since the previous analysis

  • Retain the narrow verdict and prior numerical grades after re-examining the current catalog; realized_pricing remains null.
  • Incorporate Q3 2026: the servicing portfolio exceeded $500 billion, but servicing revenue slipped because lower escrow income offset higher servicing fees. This demonstrates continuing activity without isolating fee-rate pricing.
  • Update capital discipline to nine-month operating cash flow of $182 million, trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow of $1,403 million and nearly $1.2 billion of year-to-date repurchases funded with cash and commercial paper.
  • Q3 operating income increased, but the increase in property-disposition gains exceeded the operating-income increase. Maintain a mixed assessment of margin resilience and execution.
  • Continue excluding pending Onnec relationships and forecast results from CBRE’s current advantages.

Evidence limitations

  • All selected evidence comes from CBRE filings or issuer releases. Reported operating results and contract structures support assessment, while superiority and cost-saving claims lack comparative customer-outcome verification.
  • Competition passages identify generic rival categories rather than named competing companies. Proxy peer tickers do not establish service-by-service competitor coverage; competitor arrays therefore remain empty.
  • No disclosed same-client renewal series, customer exit penalties, comparable realized fee-rate series or quantified customer migration costs establishes strong retention or unilateral pricing power.
  • Higher servicing-fee revenue, portfolio growth and investment-management fees do not isolate price from volume, mix, escrow income or performance fees.
  • Onnec was subject to regulatory approval as disclosed on October 20, 2026. Its historical customer relationships and expected 2027 results cannot be attributed to CBRE’s current operations.
  • Evidence locations preserve supplied filing dates as filed dates. Contract and governance disclosures establish arrangements, not guaranteed renewal, incentive vesting or exceptional oversight outcomes.

Financial indicators to test against the thesis

Calculated from annual filings. Missing data remains unavailable. Detailed financial charts remain in the other topics.

Financial indicators to test against the thesis
PeriodGross marginOperating marginROICFCF margin
202122.2%5.9%14.1%7.8%
202221.4%4.9%13.5%4.4%
202319.6%3.5%8.7%0.5%
202419.4%4.0%10.2%3.9%
202518.7%4.3%10.3%2.9%

Pricing power—

  • Pricing outcomes

    Contractually specified servicing-fee revenue and Q3 higher servicing fees do not isolate changes in fee rates from portfolio volume or mix. Lower escrow income reflects another revenue driver. Fixed, variable and incentive project fees disclose structure rather than realized price changes, leaving pricing outcomes unassessable.

  • Customer demand

    Multi-year facilities contracts, repeated institutional penetration and sustained organic servicing growth provide indirect evidence of continuing demand. Retained servicing rights reinforce continuity. These observations do not identify same-client retention, renewal success or churn, and portfolio growth can coexist with individual customer losses.

  • Margin resilience

    First-half Project Management operating margin improved from 5.0% to 5.8% of total segment revenue, including pass-through revenue. Variable producer compensation supports flexibility. Q3 consolidated operating income rose from $481 million to $561 million, but disposition gains rose from $36 million to $184 million. Underlying resilience remains mixed and does not establish pricing power.

  • Pricing freedom

    Servicing fees are contractually specified, and maintaining investment-management fee structures depends on satisfactory performance. Project Management combines fixed, variable and performance-contingent fees, allowing some negotiated flexibility. The arrangements demonstrate constrained repricing freedom rather than broad unilateral increases; they do not establish complete inability to negotiate terms.

Management63

  • Capital discipline

    Trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow of $1,403 million supports deployment capacity. However, nine-month operating cash flow fell to $182 million from $338 million, versus $321 million of capital expenditure and nearly $1.2 billion of repurchases funded partly with commercial paper. Pending Onnec commitments add exposure; acquisition returns and repurchase value creation remain unproven.

  • Incentive alignment

    Actual 2025 annual equity awards were two-thirds performance based, with trading and hedging restrictions reinforcing exposure to shareholder outcomes. An issued five-year performance-based retention award adds duration. Strategic objectives represented 50% of the 2025 bonus, and Core EPS permits committee adjustments. These are adopted incentives, not evidence of eventual vesting or achievement.

  • Execution

    Organic servicing growth, improved first-half Project Management profitability and Q3 revenue growth support execution through operating evidence. Experienced integration challenges, weaker nine-month cash conversion and profit growth aided by property dispositions keep the record mixed. Pending Onnec provides no completed integration outcome; customer-service execution is assessed indirectly.

  • Governance

    Annual elections, majority voting, proxy access, independent sessions and a serving lead independent director support strong governance arrangements. Subsequent results confirm election of all ten directors. The existing 25% special-meeting threshold and rejection of the related shareholder proposal constrain access. These safeguards establish governance structure rather than exceptional oversight outcomes.

Sources and methodology

Current publication · Updated 23/10/2026 · Version 11

AI interpretation based on checked source excerpts. Issuer assertions and evidence limitations remain explicit.

Policy quality-scores-3: six equally weighted categories. The overall score requires full coverage. Missing inputs are not zero. Qualitative grades are sourced interpretations, not probabilities. 5/6 · 31/10/2026

Moat56

Equal-weight average of four evidence-backed rubric grades (0–4), scaled to 100.

structural advantage · 3/4 · International integrated capabilities, proprietary construction-cost databases and nearly 90% Fortune 100 penetration in successive years support an established franchise. Seven-year organic servicing growth corroborates commercial relevance. Comparable rival capabilities constrain differentiation; the grade does not treat management’s claimed superior customer outcomes as independently demonstrated.

durability · 2/4 · Multi-year facilities contracts and seven years of organic servicing growth support persistence beyond individual transactions. Relative strength nevertheless varies by geography and service, and comparable providers contest the business. Potential producer departures limit institutional protection, without establishing that such departures have caused realized deterioration.

customer dependency · 2/4 · Daily building responsibilities, multi-year facilities contracts and retained servicing rights imply moderate operational dependence. Transition costs demonstrate implementation work but are incurred by CBRE, not disclosed customer exit costs. One-off advisory engagements limit the breadth of dependency, and no customer migration or termination-penalty evidence establishes stronger lock-in.

erosion resilience · 2/4 · Sustained organic servicing growth, the Q3 servicing-portfolio expansion and continued infrastructure consulting demand support resilience in parts of the franchise. Similar rival capabilities, experienced integration challenges and an actual corporate-spending slowdown temper that evidence. Lower escrow income also demonstrates exposure outside customer relationship strength.

Pricing power—

Insufficient evidence for every rubric criterion; no category score is inferred.

realized pricing · — · Contractually specified servicing-fee revenue and Q3 higher servicing fees do not isolate changes in fee rates from portfolio volume or mix. Lower escrow income reflects another revenue driver. Fixed, variable and incentive project fees disclose structure rather than realized price changes, leaving pricing outcomes unassessable.

retention · 2/4 · Multi-year facilities contracts, repeated institutional penetration and sustained organic servicing growth provide indirect evidence of continuing demand. Retained servicing rights reinforce continuity. These observations do not identify same-client retention, renewal success or churn, and portfolio growth can coexist with individual customer losses.

margin resilience · 2/4 · First-half Project Management operating margin improved from 5.0% to 5.8% of total segment revenue, including pass-through revenue. Variable producer compensation supports flexibility. Q3 consolidated operating income rose from $481 million to $561 million, but disposition gains rose from $36 million to $184 million. Underlying resilience remains mixed and does not establish pricing power.

contractual freedom · 1/4 · Servicing fees are contractually specified, and maintaining investment-management fee structures depends on satisfactory performance. Project Management combines fixed, variable and performance-contingent fees, allowing some negotiated flexibility. The arrangements demonstrate constrained repricing freedom rather than broad unilateral increases; they do not establish complete inability to negotiate terms.

Predictability100

5 consecutive published annual periods. Equal weights: nondeclining revenue frequency; revenue-growth volatility (5–40pp); positive FCF frequency; FCF-margin volatility (3–20pp). Stability indicator, not a growth forecast.

Nondeclining revenue years (%)
100.00
Revenue growth volatility (pp)
3.77
Positive FCF years (%)
100.00
FCF margin volatility (pp)
2.34
observedAnnualPeriods
5.00

Financial strength27

Equal-weight grades: debt/FCF (1–8x), net debt/earnings before interest and tax (0–5x), interest service (1–12x), current ratio (0.75–2x). Earnings use reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense. Reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest. Interest service uses earnings/interest expense; if unavailable, it uses reported operating cash flow/cash interest paid, without relabeling cash paid as accrued expense. Nonpositive cash flow/earnings score 0 for their service component; reported zero interest with a positive numerator scores 100. Net cash scores 100 for net leverage. Missing disclosures remain unavailable. General nonfinancial-company rubric, not a credit rating; exceptional and nonoperating gains are not normalized out. IFRS finance-cost and cash-flow classifications retain their reported scope.

debtFcfGrade
23.45
netDebtEbitGrade
34.72
interestCoverageGrade
22.54
currentRatioGrade
27.59
Debt / FCF (x)
6.36
Net debt / operating income (x)
3.26
Current ratio (x)
1.09
cashInterestPaid
448.00
cashInterestCoverage
3.48

Capital allocation84

Three-year equal-weight indicators: pretax return on average invested capital (0–25%; equity + debt − cash, each year and its prior year), share-count growth (0–5%, lower better), share-based cost/revenue (2–20%, lower better), consolidated FCF/net income (0–1x). Return uses reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or EBIT calculated from reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense; the issuer-reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest; exceptional/nonoperating gains are not normalized out. Share-based cost uses the reported cash-flow add-back or, if absent, separately reported recognized compensation expense; the latter never becomes an FCF adjustment. Nonpositive net income scores 0 for cash conversion; absent income/FCF stays unavailable. ROIC remains undefined for nonpositive invested capital; the explicit asset-return alternative does not change the ROIC chart. Missing financial inputs alone never trigger an alternative. Does not establish acquisition quality or buyback timing.

3-year pre-tax operating return (%)
11.88
3-year average dilution (%)
-2.60
3-year average SBC / revenue (%)
0.33
cashConversionGrade
89.01

Management63

Equal-weight average of four evidence-backed rubric grades (0–4), scaled to 100.

capital discipline · 2/4 · Trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow of $1,403 million supports deployment capacity. However, nine-month operating cash flow fell to $182 million from $338 million, versus $321 million of capital expenditure and nearly $1.2 billion of repurchases funded partly with commercial paper. Pending Onnec commitments add exposure; acquisition returns and repurchase value creation remain unproven.

incentive alignment · 3/4 · Actual 2025 annual equity awards were two-thirds performance based, with trading and hedging restrictions reinforcing exposure to shareholder outcomes. An issued five-year performance-based retention award adds duration. Strategic objectives represented 50% of the 2025 bonus, and Core EPS permits committee adjustments. These are adopted incentives, not evidence of eventual vesting or achievement.

execution · 2/4 · Organic servicing growth, improved first-half Project Management profitability and Q3 revenue growth support execution through operating evidence. Experienced integration challenges, weaker nine-month cash conversion and profit growth aided by property dispositions keep the record mixed. Pending Onnec provides no completed integration outcome; customer-service execution is assessed indirectly.

governance · 3/4 · Annual elections, majority voting, proxy access, independent sessions and a serving lead independent director support strong governance arrangements. Subsequent results confirm election of all ten directors. The existing 25% special-meeting threshold and rejection of the related shareholder proposal constrain access. These safeguards establish governance structure rather than exceptional oversight outcomes.

Evidence

We derive competitive advantage from our considerable scale and ability to offer integrated solutions for real estate investors and occupiers in more than 100 countries.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Business—international integrated platform; issuer advantage assertion · Filed 12/02/2026

These capabilities, combined with our extensive knowledge platform (research, data, strategy, etc.), allow us to generate superior outcomes for our clients, which included nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies and many of the world’s largest institutional real estate investors in 2025.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Business—2025 client penetration and claimed customer outcomes · Filed 12/02/2026

These capabilities, combined with our extensive knowledge platform (research, data, strategy, etc.), allow us to generate superior outcomes for our clients, which include nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies in 2024, and many of the world’s largest institutional real estate investors.

2024 Form 10-K, filed 2025-02-14: Business—2024 client penetration and claimed customer outcomes · Filed 14/02/2025

Our cost consultancy specialists leverage proprietary databases and global benchmarks to establish construction cost baselines and identify ways to reduce costs at every stage of the project lifecycle.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Business—proprietary cost databases and global benchmarks · Filed 12/02/2026

For example, in the last seven years, we have organically grown our loan servicing revenue at a low-double digit compound annual growth rate.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Advisory Services—seven-year organic loan-servicing revenue growth · Filed 12/02/2026

Although we are the largest commercial real estate services firm in the world in terms of 2025 revenue, our relative competitive position varies across geographies, property types and services and business lines.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Competition—relative position varies by geography, property type and service · Filed 12/02/2026

We also compete with large national and multi-national firms that have similar service and investment competencies to ours, and it is possible that further industry consolidation could lead to much larger and more formidable competitors globally or in the particular geographies, property types, service or business lines that we serve.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Competition—unnamed national and multinational firms with similar competencies · Filed 12/02/2026

The departure of any of our key employees, or the loss of a significant number of key revenue producers, if we are unable to quickly hire and integrate qualified replacements, could cause our business, financial condition and results of operations to materially suffer.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Risk factors—potential loss of key employees and producers · Filed 12/02/2026

Our enterprise facilities management business typically serves large global corporations, including many of the Fortune 500, through multi-year contracts, while our local facilities management business meets the needs of smaller occupiers with more regional portfolios.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Building Operations & Experience—multi-year enterprise facilities contracts · Filed 12/02/2026

We oversee the daily operations that keep buildings functioning.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Business—daily building operations · Filed 12/02/2026

The warehouse lines of credit are generally repaid within a one-month period when Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae buys the loans or upon settlement of the Fannie Mae or Ginnie Mae MBS, while we retain the servicing rights.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Loan arrangements—servicing rights retained after loan sales · Filed 12/02/2026

Other amortizable intangible assets mainly represent upfront transition costs incurred to obtain or fulfill contracts prior to services being rendered which primarily get amortized to cost of revenue over the life of the associated contract.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Intangible assets—CBRE-incurred upfront contract transition costs · Filed 12/02/2026

We have had, and may continue to experience, challenges in integrating operations and information technology systems acquired from other companies.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Risk factors—experienced acquisition integration challenges · Filed 12/02/2026

Our client base is comprised of large occupiers and investors that contract for our services across multi-market portfolios as well as local market clients that we serve on a one-off basis.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Advisory Services—multi-market portfolios and one-off local engagements · Filed 12/02/2026

Included in revenue in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations are contractually specified servicing fees from loans serviced for others of $357 million, $329 million and $315 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and includes prepayment fees/late fees earned from loans serviced for others of $15 million, $9 million and $5 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Revenue recognition—contractually specified servicing fees, 2023–2025, dollars in millions · Filed 12/02/2026

Revenues from project management services generally include construction management, fixed management fees, variable fees, and incentive fees if certain agreed upon performance targets are met.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Revenue recognition—project-management fixed, variable and incentive fees · Filed 12/02/2026

Investors and potential investors in our programs continually assess our performance, and our ability to raise capital for existing and future programs and maintaining our current fee structure will depend on our continued satisfactory performance.

2025 Form 10-K, filed 2026-02-12: Investment-management risk—maintaining fee structure depends on satisfactory performance · Filed 12/02/2026

Project Management The following table summarizes our results of operations for our Project Management operating segment for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025 (dollars in millions): Three Months Ended June 30, (1) Six Months Ended June 30, (1) 2026 2025 2026 2025 Segment revenue $2,045 100.0% $1,717 100.0% $3,883 100.0% $3,311 100.0% Costs and expenses: Pass-through costs (2) 1,080 52.8% 884 51.5% 2,007 51.7% 1,711 51.7% Cost of revenue, excluding pass-through costs 686 33.5% 603 35.1% 1,337 34.4% 1,150 34.7% Operating, administrative and other 134 6.6% 118 6.9% 261 6.7% 233 7.0% Depreciation and amortization 26 1.3% 26 1.5% 52 1.3% 51 1.5% Total costs and expenses 1,926 94.2% 1,631 95.0% 3,657 94.2% 3,145 95.0% Operating income 119 5.8% 86 5.0% 226 5.8% 166 5.0% Other income 1 0.0% 1 0.1% 1 0.0% 1 0.0% Add-back: Depreciation and amortization 26 1.3% 26 1.5% 52 1.3% 51 1.5% Adjustments: Integration and other costs related to acquisitions 1 0.0% 2 0.1% 3 0.1% 9 0.3% Segment operating profit $147 $115 $282 $227 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (1)Calculated as a percentage of total segment revenue.

June 2026 Form 10-Q, filed 2026-07-29: Project Management—three- and six-month results, dollars in millions; percentages of total segment revenue · Filed 29/07/2026

Given compensation is our largest expense and our sales and leasing professionals are generally paid on a commission and/or bonus basis that correlates with their revenue production, the negative effect of difficult market conditions is partially mitigated by the inherent variability of our compensation structure.

June 2026 Form 10-Q, filed 2026-07-29: Liquidity—variable producer compensation · Filed 29/07/2026

The following table presents highlights of CBRE performance (dollars in millions, except per share data): % Change Q3 2026 Q3 2025 USD LC (2) Operating Results Revenue $ 11,517 $ 10,221 12.7 % 12.9 % Pass-through costs (3) 4,691 4,212 11.4 % 11.8 % GAAP net income 443 363 22.0 % 23.4 % Core adjusted net income (4) 599 481 24.5 % 25.6 % GAAP EPS 1.52 1.21 25.6 % 27.3 % Core EPS (4) 2.05 1.60 28.1 % 29.4 % Core EBITDA (5) 1,001 779 28.5 % 29.1

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Q3 2026 versus Q3 2025 consolidated results, dollars in millions except per-share data · Filed 22/10/2026

Costs and expenses: Cost of revenue 9,392 8,304 27,207 23,511 Operating, administrative and other 1,564 1,327 4,560 3,794 Depreciation and amortization 184 145 556 432 Total costs and expenses 11,140 9,776 32,323 27,737 Gain on disposition of real estate 184 36 490 55 Operating income 561 481 1,437 1,131 Equity income from unconsolidated subsidiaries 104 52 99 50 Other income 8 3 25 10 Interest expense, net of interest income 62 50 181 159 Write-off of financing costs on extinguished debt — — — 2 Income before provision for income taxes 611 486 1,380 1,030 Provision for income taxes 131 90 311 203 Net income 480 396 1,069 827 Less: Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 37 33 104 86 Net income attributable to CBRE Group, Inc.

September 2026 Form 10-Q, filed 2026-10-22: Consolidated operations, dollars in millions; columns Q3 2026, Q3 2025, nine months 2026, nine months 2025 · Filed 22/10/2026

•The loan servicing portfolio rose 8% during the quarter to more than $500 billion.

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Loan-servicing portfolio growth during Q3 2026 · Filed 22/10/2026

Revenue was down slightly as lower escrow income offset higher loan servicing fees.

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Loan-servicing revenue—lower escrow income offsets higher servicing fees · Filed 22/10/2026

•Growth was driven by continued strong demand for program management and cost consulting services for infrastructure assets.

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Project Management—infrastructure program-management and cost-consulting demand · Filed 22/10/2026

•The overall growth rate was tempered by a slowdown in corporate capital spending on real estate.

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Project Management—corporate real-estate capital-spending slowdown · Filed 22/10/2026

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in millions) (Unaudited) Nine Months Ended September 30, 2026 2025 CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net income $ 1,069 $ 827 Reconciliation of net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 556 432 Amortization of other assets 149 152 Net non-cash mortgage servicing rights and premiums on loan sales 12 (18) Deferred income taxes (36) (69) Stock-based compensation expense 158 110 Equity income from investments (99) (50) Gain on sale of real estate assets (490) (55) Other non-cash adjustments 120 43 Sale of mortgage loans 10,747 9,984 Origination of mortgage loans (10,045) (11,041) Changes in: Warehouse lines of credit (673) 1,072 Receivables, prepaid expenses and other assets (1,039) (419) Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other liabilities 285 5 Accrued compensation expenses (312) (431) Income taxes, net (220) (204) Net cash provided by operating activities 182 338 CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Capital expenditures (321) (222) Payments for business acquired, net of cash acquired (6) (331) Capital contributions related to investments (125) (93) Acquisition and development of real estate assets (432) (240) Proceeds from disposition of real estate assets 436 104 Other investing activities, net

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Nine-month cash flows through September 30, 2026 and 2025, dollars in millions · Filed 22/10/2026

Adjustments: Depreciation and amortization 707 Interest expense, net of interest income 238 Provision for income taxes 425 Net non-cash mortgage servicing rights 12 Integration and other costs related to acquisitions 289 Carried interest incentive compensation expense to align with the timing of associated revenue 2 Net results related to the wind-down of certain businesses 66 Business and finance transformation 168 Non-cash pension buy-out settlement loss 147 Costs associated with efficiency and cost-reduction initiatives (7) Provision associated with Telford’s fire safety remediation efforts 300 Net fair value adjustments on strategic non-core investments 36 Core EBITDA $ 3,902 CBRE Press Release October 22, 2026 Page 16 Below represents a reconciliation of REI business line operating profitability/loss to REI segment operating profit (in millions): Three Months Ended September 30, Real Estate Investments 2026 2025 Investment management operating profit $ 38 $ 43 Global real estate development operating profit 128 35 Segment overhead (and related adjustments) — (5) Real estate investments segment operating profit $ 166 $ 73 Below represents a reconciliation of cash flow provided by (used in) operations to free cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2026 (in millions): Q4 2025 Q1 2026 Q2 2026 Q3 2026 Trailing Twelve Months Cash Flow Results Cash flow provided by (used in) operations $ 1,221 $ (825) $ 138 $ 869 $ 1,403 Gains on disposition of real estate sales 404 301 5 184 894 Less: Capital expenditures 144 81 114 126 465 Free cash flow $ 1,481 $ (605) $ 29 $ 927 $ 1,832

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Reconciliations including trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow and free cash flow through September 30, 2026, dollars in millions · Filed 22/10/2026

•Stock Repurchase Program – Year-to-date, the company repurchased nearly $1.2 billion worth of shares.

Third-quarter earnings release, filed 2026-10-22: Capital allocation—2026 year-to-date share repurchases · Filed 22/10/2026

These stock repurchases were funded with cash on hand and proceeds from our commercial paper program.

September 2026 Form 10-Q, filed 2026-10-22: Liquidity—cash and commercial-paper funding of repurchases · Filed 22/10/2026

The initial purchase price is £460 million (approximately $610 million) in cash.

Onnec acquisition announcement, filed 2026-10-20: Initial agreed cash purchase price · Filed 20/10/2026

In addition, the parties have agreed to a multi-year earnout of up to £300 million (approximately $400 million), subject to Onnec meeting certain growth thresholds.

Onnec acquisition announcement, filed 2026-10-20: Conditional multi-year earnout · Filed 20/10/2026

CBRE Press Release The Onnec transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed around the end of the year.

Onnec acquisition announcement, filed 2026-10-20: Regulatory conditions and expected completion · Filed 20/10/2026

For 2025, both our CEO and our other named executive officers received one-third of their target annual long-term equity award as time-based RSUs, while the remaining two-thirds were awarded as performance-based RSUs.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: Actual 2025 annual equity-award composition · Filed 03/04/2026

We prohibit all directors, executive officers, and other designated insiders from: • engaging in short-term investment activities such as arbitrage trading or day trading; • taking short positions in the company’s securities; • purchasing financial instruments (including prepaid variable forward contracts, equity swaps, collars, and exchange funds); or • engaging in hedging or other derivative transactions, that hedge or offset, or are designed to hedge or offset, any decrease in the market value of our securities.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: Actual trading and hedging prohibitions · Filed 03/04/2026

Although company financial performance is critical to our success, the Committee also believes that a substantial portion of the EBP award (50% for 2025) should take into account the executive’s overall performance, including the achievement of important strategic objectives.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: 2025 executive bonus—50% strategic-objective component · Filed 03/04/2026

Executive Retention Equity Award On February 25, 2026, the Compensation Committee (the “Committee”) of the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) issued a one-time equity-based retention award (the “Award”) to Vikram Kohli, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, Advisory Services.

Form 8-K, filed 2026-02-26: Retention award issued to Vikram Kohli on February 25, 2026 · Filed 26/02/2026

Notably, the Award is 100% performance based and will vest only if the specified performance criteria are met.

Form 8-K, filed 2026-02-26: Issued retention award is entirely performance based · Filed 26/02/2026

The Award has been made under terms that are materially consistent with the Company’s equity grants to other executives and employees, except that: • The vesting term of each type of Performance RSU subject to the Award is five years, which is longer than typical market practice and longer than the three-year vesting period associated with our annual awards of Performance RSUs.

Form 8-K, filed 2026-02-26: Issued retention award—five-year vesting term · Filed 26/02/2026

“Core EPS” is defined as the Company’s earnings per share, as equitably adjusted by the Committee for any of the adjustment factors set forth in the Company’s Amended and Restated 2019 Equity Incentive Plan and as otherwise determined by the Committee in its reasonable discretion to be necessary to prevent enlargement or diminution of the benefits or potential benefits intended to be provided pursuant to the Award.

Form 8-K, filed 2026-02-26: Retention award—Core EPS adjustments and committee discretion · Filed 26/02/2026

Our governance practices include: • Robust director selection process resulting in a diverse Board in terms of professional experience, skills, tenure, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, and age • Strong lead independent director, elected by independent directors • 8 out of 10 of our director nominees are independent • No “overboarding” by our directors on other public-company boards • Regular executive sessions, where independent directors meet without management present • Annual Board, committee, and individual director evaluations and self-assessments • Active Board oversight of strategy, risk management, sustainability, social responsibility, and governance matters • Annual election of directors • Majority voting standard for uncontested elections • Proxy access rights for director nominations • Stock ownership requirements for directors and executive officers • Policy restricting trading and prohibiting hedging, short-selling, and pledging of CBRE stock • Ongoing stockholder outreach and engagement • Stockholder rights to call a special meeting • No poison pill takeover defense plans Our Board Nominees Our Board nominees exhibit a mix of skills, experience, and perspectives: Name Age Director Since Principal Occupation Independent Committees Other Public Company Boards Brandon B.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: Governance practices and proposed board independence · Filed 03/04/2026

Sanjiv Yajnik has been our lead independent director since May 2025 and a member of the Board since 2017.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: Serving lead independent director since May 2025 · Filed 03/04/2026

o The Board maintains that the current 25% threshold is appropriate for our company and remains in line with broader market practices.

2026 proxy, filed 2026-04-03: Existing 25% special-meeting threshold · Filed 03/04/2026

Each of the following 10 directors was elected to our Board of Directors, to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders in 2027 or until their respective successors are elected and qualified.

Annual-meeting results, filed 2026-05-22: Election of all ten directors · Filed 22/05/2026

4. The stockholder proposal regarding stockholders’ ability to call special stockholder meetings was rejected by a vote of 85,999,804 shares in favor, 166,814,496 shares against, and 510,500 shares abstaining.

Annual-meeting results, filed 2026-05-22: Special-meeting stockholder proposal rejected · Filed 22/05/2026

Publication history

Publication history
VersionUpdatedCompetitive advantage
1131/10/2026narrow
1028/10/2026narrow
924/10/2026narrow
823/10/2026narrow
722/10/2026narrow
622/10/2026narrow
519/10/2026narrow
418/10/2026narrow
318/10/2026narrow
218/10/2026narrow

Sources

Research methodology and limitations · What is an economic moat?