Barry Gosin Discusses 40 Years at Newmark, the Future of Real Estate

After 40 years of a legendary career in real estate, Newmark Knight Frank CEO Barry Gosin could easily rest on his laurels. But, during his keynote address at the recent Global Leaders in Real Estate Summit, he clearly embraces the future.   

EisnerAmper Real Estate Partner Lisa Knee interviewed Gosin at the event—which was co-sponsored by iGlobal Forum in partnership with EisnerAmper and held in October at the Sofitel New York.  

Knee: What does the future hold for the real estate sector?

Gosin: One prediction is the continued growth of co-working space. Today’s worker seeks a location with like-minded people, an energy and dynamism. Employees also like open space, fewer offices, much more light, and collaboration rooms. Employers, meanwhile, seek flexibility in their leasing.  Co-working addresses the preferences of both groups. It’s no surprise, then, that co-working already accounts for 2.7% of the New York City market and 10% of Newmark’s New York leasing activity.

Knee: What are the most appealing markets for employers?

Gosin: The places that attract the most talent. When I started in the business, the adage was location, location, location. Today it’s changed to talent, talent, talent. If you talk to any of the technology companies in Silicon Valley, they will tell you that if they find a location where they can attract talent, that’s where they’ll move to. Pittsburgh is an example of a city that’s attracting companies because of its huge pool of coding engineers.

Knee: What about international capital?

Gosin: The influx will continue. The U.S. is still considered the best place in which to invest. Anyone disappointed by the pullback from Chinese investors can take heart from Canadian investors, who represent about 20% of the total investment in the market. Furthermore, Japanese investors will pick up some of the slack. 

Knee: What role does technology play?

Gosin: It will continue to increase in importance. Look at Uber and Amazon Prime as change agents. There will be similar transformations in many other businesses, including the real estate industry.  Newmark is building its own technology. Its tools include a data warehouse, a mapping system, and a digital tour book. In the future, there will be fewer brokers and more tools. Everything we have is mobile; everything is going to be in the cloud. If you’re not excited about technology, you should be frightened of it. And if you don’t embrace technology and engage with it, it’ll kill you.