The OpRE Transactional Market Is Back. And Businesses Are Investing.

The operational real estate sector is waking up. After years of subdued deal flow, transactional activity across hotels, licensed leisure and healthcare is picking up pace, and businesses are scrambling to build the teams to capitalise on it.

There’s a quiet but unmistakable shift happening across the operational real estate landscape. After a prolonged period of caution shaped by rising interest rates, compressed margins and the hangover of post-pandemic recalibration, transactional activity is returning. And with it, an intensifying race to hire the specialist talent needed to execute deals.

Across brokerage, capital markets and investment, businesses are moving. The signal isn’t just in deal volumes. It’s in headcount decisions. Firms that held back on hiring through the lean years are now actively building out their operational real estate transactional teams, with a clear focus on three verticals: hotels, licensed leisure and healthcare.

Why Now?

The timing is no accident. A num of factors has made the conditions ripe for transactional momentum to return.

Debt markets, while still not as accommodating as the pre-2022 environment, have stabilised sufficiently for buyers and sellers to find common ground on pricing. After two years of bid-ask spread stalemate, vendor expectations have adjusted and motivated sellers, particularly institutional players managing legacy portfolios, are engaging more seriously with the market. Meanwhile, a wall of refinancing pressure across operational assets is forcing decisions that have been deferred for too long.

At the same time, appetite from buyers, both domestic and international, remains robust. Operational real estate, with its income complexity and management intensity, has always attracted a specialist pool of capital. That capital hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s been waiting. And now, with greater pricing clarity emerging, it’s beginning to deploy again.

The Three Verticals Driving Activity

Hotels are leading the charge. The sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience in trading performance, with RevPAR figures across much of the UK and Europe holding firm or growing. Investors who understand the operational nuance of hospitality assets, including flags, management agreements, leases and the interplay between property value and trading performance, are well-positioned to move. The advisory and brokerage community knows this, and the push to bring experienced hotel transactional professionals on board reflects a genuine expectation that deal flow is coming.

Licensed leisure, spanning pubs, bars, restaurants, gaming and entertainment venues, is equally active. The sector has undergone significant structural change in recent years, with major pub companies, private equity-backed operators and property investors all making strategic portfolio decisions. Whether it’s sale-and-leaseback structures, pub estate disposals or the repositioning of entertainment assets, there is meaningful transactional work to be done. Advisors with proven track records in licensed leisure M&A and property transactions are in high demand.

Healthcare rounds out the picture. An ageing population, chronic undersupply of quality care beds and the continued professionalisation of the sector by institutional capital have made healthcare real estate one of the most sought-after operational asset classes. Care homes, retirement living, specialist housing and primary care properties are all seeing investor interest, and the complexity of transacting in a regulated, operationally intensive environment means that genuine sector expertise commands a significant premium.

Where the Hiring Is Happening

The hiring push is spread across three distinct functions, each reflecting a different stage of the deal lifecycle.

In brokerage, firms are investing in senior transactional talent who can originate and execute mandates. The ability to advise vendors and buyers on operational assets, navigating the intersection of property fundamentals and trading performance, is a genuinely specialist skill set, and the competition for experienced practitioners is fierce.

In capital markets, the focus is on those who can structure and place operational real estate deals with institutional and private capital. As debt markets evolve and alternative financing structures become more common across senior debt, mezzanine, preferred equity and joint ventures, the need for capital markets professionals who understand how operational assets behave within a financing context is growing.

In investment, both on the principal and advisory side, businesses are building teams capable of identifying, underwriting and managing operational real estate assets through the deal cycle. This is particularly pronounced among fund managers and REITs with dedicated operational real estate mandates, where the ability to assess operational risk alongside property risk is non-negotiable.

The Talent Challenge

The specialist nature of operational real estate means the talent pool is inherently narrow. Unlike mainstream commercial property, where a capable generalist can add value, OpRE transactional roles demand professionals who genuinely understand how hotels trade, how pub tenancies work, how care home EBITDA translates into asset value. That knowledge takes years to build.

As a result, businesses aren’t just competing on salary. They’re competing on platform, reputation, deal flow visibility and culture. The best operators in this space have options, and they know it. Firms that move quickly, offer genuine autonomy and can demonstrate a credible pipeline of activity will win the best people. Those that move slowly or offer vague promises about future opportunity will find the market has moved on without them.

What This Means for the Sector

The return of transactional activity to operational real estate is genuinely good news for the sector. It signals renewed confidence, improved pricing dynamics and a willingness from capital to engage with the complexity that defines these assets. The hiring activity we’re seeing is both a reflection of that confidence and an investment in the capacity to capitalise on it.

For professionals with genuine operational real estate expertise, whether in hotels, licensed leisure or healthcare, the market has rarely looked more favourable. For businesses looking to build or strengthen their transactional capabilities, the message is simple: the window to hire the right people is open, but it won’t stay that way for long.

The OpRE market is moving. The question is whether your team is ready to move with it.

Interested in how the operational real estate hiring landscape is evolving across brokerage, capital markets and investment? Get in touch to discuss how we’re helping businesses build specialist transactional teams across hotels, licensed leisure and healthcare.