“You know, people talk about lawyers can be replaced by AI. No, they're taking more spaces.” Henry Chin · The Weekly Take from CBRE
August 2026
Chin is running through which sectors are signing the most office leases, and legal and professional services are near the top. The remark cuts against the standard line that AI will thin out law firms and the floors they occupy. He adds that the same pattern shows up in London and Hong Kong, not just the US.
Transcript
City, one of the best office submarkets in America.
Absolutely.
It's excellent. Now, also, if you're thinking about just a look at the Q2 numbers where we're seeing the biggest leasing coming from which sector? Eco and professional services. You know, people talk about lawyers can be replaced by AI. No, they're taking more spaces. And that not only happened here in the U.S., also happened in London, also happening in Hong Kong. Just tell you the story.
But what I will say is tech and financial services are the industries that, especially tech, are growing their market share the most of leasing. And when you look under the belly of that, the size of their leases and the term of their leases are expanding somewhat. Expanding,
yeah.
So now let's talk about the returns you're going to get in New York, San Francisco, or dare I say it, Kansas City, okay? Apples and oranges. But the apples and oranges need to be considered because the same thing that was reducing supply, which is high interest rates, is the same thing that's changing the component of returns. So returns used to be, well, all on this for a while, cap rates will compress at the end. I'm a genius. Game over. The game now is the operators win and you need higher cash flow going in. You need to raise that cash flow faster. And you certainly can get higher cash flow going in Kansas City than you can in other markets. What do you think, Darren?