Commercial real estate brokerages: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank commercial real estate brokerages by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Commercial real estate brokerages that advise on office, industrial, retail, multifamily, capital markets, tenant representation, and investment sales transactions. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When buyers in the market for commercial real estate brokerages turn to AI engines for guidance, CBRE is prominently mentioned, leading with 62.5% visibility in responses. Other top brands like Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers also frequently appear. This visibility reflects how reliably AI cites them as trusted sources in the industry.
The rankings are shaped by how often AI engines pull data from top-cited sources like hughesmarino.com, sharplaunch.com, and reonomy.com. Many of these are aggregator or review sites which compile comprehensive market data, meaning brands that maintain a presence on these platforms are more likely to be referenced.
For a buyer navigating this list, consider the emphasis that AI engines place on recent reviews and third-party validation from these cited sources. A brand with strong topical authority and positive reviews on these platforms can offer added assurance of reliability and expertise in specific areas of commercial real estate.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
CBRE leads the commercial real estate brokerages category with a composite score of 51.2 and visibility of 62.5%, which is more than double Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers, both sitting at 50.0% visibility and a composite score of 35.0. JLL, despite being a globally recognised firm, records only 25.0% visibility and a composite score of 17.5. The gap between CBRE and the rest of the ranked brands is substantial, and below rank 5, every brand scores a composite of 8.8 or lower, with ten brands recording zero composite score.
A notable divergence exists between AI visibility and citation behaviour. Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers both hold 50.0% visibility but record 0.0% citation, meaning Google AI Mode mentions them without linking to their domains. CBRE is the only top-five brand earning citations, at 25.0%. Conversely, SVN holds 0.0% visibility yet earns a 25.0% citation rate, and Lee & Associates earns 12.5% citations with zero visibility, indicating AI is referencing those domains as sources without featuring the brands in answers.
The top cited sources in this category are dominated by third-party and directory-style domains: hughesmarino.com, sharplaunch.com, reonomy.com, clutch.co, commercialsearch.com, youtube.com, m.yelp.com, and latimes.com. None of the major brokerage brand domains appear in this cited-sources list, suggesting Google AI Mode is anchoring its factual sourcing on aggregator and review platforms rather than on the brokerages' own websites, even when those brands are named prominently in generated answers.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
CBRE 12% → 62% · rank #1 → #1+50pp
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Cushman & Wakefield 12% → 50% · rank #3 → #2+38pp
-
Colliers 12% → 50% · rank #4 → #3+38pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
cbre.com
|
62% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
CBRE's 62.5% visibility and 25.0% citation rate make it the only top-five brand earning both named presence and direct source attribution in Google AI Mode answers. |
||||
| 2 |
cushmanwakefield.com
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Cushman & Wakefield matches Colliers with 50.0% visibility and a 35.0 composite score, but both brands record 0.0% citation, five times the category average visibility yet no source credit. |
||||
| 3 |
colliers.com
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Colliers ties Cushman & Wakefield at 50.0% visibility and a composite of 35.0, with visibility rising 37.5 points from the prior period but citation remaining at zero. |
||||
| 4 |
jll.com
|
25% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
JLL's 25.0% visibility and composite of 17.5 place it well below the top three despite its global scale, and it records no citations in the current audit period. |
||||
| 5 |
nmrk.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Newmark's 12.5% visibility and composite of 8.8 are only marginally above the 10.0% category average, with zero citations separating it from brands ranked below with no visibility at all. |
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| 6 |
svn.com
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
lee-associates.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
savills.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
avisonyoung.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
eastdilsecured.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
transwestern.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
berkadia.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
marcusmillichap.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
kidder.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
naiglobal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
cresa.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
streamrealty.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
walkerdunlop.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
northmarq.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
theshoppingcentergroup.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on commercial real estate brokerages, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Get your own commercial real estate brokerages brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about commercial real estate brokerages AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in commercial real estate brokerages?
CBRE leads with 62.5% visibility and a composite score of 51.2, well ahead of Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers, which are tied at 50.0% visibility and a composite of 35.0.
Which commercial real estate brands are cited most by Google AI Mode?
CBRE and SVN are the only brands in the audit earning any citations, at 25.0% each, though SVN records zero visibility, meaning it is cited as a source without being named in answers.
What third-party sources does Google AI Mode anchor on for commercial real estate research?
The top cited sources are hughesmarino.com, sharplaunch.com, reonomy.com, clutch.co, commercialsearch.com, youtube.com, m.yelp.com, and latimes.com, none of which are the major brokerage brand domains.
How does AI visibility in this category compare to the category average?
The category average visibility is 10.0% and average citation is 3.1%, meaning CBRE at 62.5% visibility is more than six times the average, while ten of the twenty brands score a composite of zero.
Which brands gained the most AI visibility in the most recent period?
CBRE gained 50.0 visibility points (from 12.5% to 62.5%), while Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers each gained 37.5 points, all three moving from 12.5% to their current levels.
Can a brand earn citations from Google AI Mode without being visible in its answers?
Yes, SVN holds 0.0% visibility but a 25.0% citation rate, and Lee & Associates holds 0.0% visibility with a 12.5% citation rate, indicating AI is sourcing from their domains without featuring them in generated responses.