EXPO-Review 2026

More Reality. More Clarity.

By Daniel Bauer, Manag­ing Part­ner at VALDIVIA

We kicked off EXPO REAL 2026 on Monday in glori­ous autumn weath­er. The evening before, we had already kicked off the event with our tradi­tion­al VALDIVIA Board­room Lunch at the Käfer Wiesn Schänke, togeth­er with clients, part­ners and long-stand­ing asso­ciates. The discus­sions there and over the follow­ing days of the trade fair reflect­ed a trend that has partic­u­lar­ly struck us this year.

Follow­ing numer­ous discus­sions with investors, prop­er­ty owners, asset managers, project devel­op­ers, fund repre­sen­ta­tives, fami­ly offices and exec­u­tives from Germany, Europe, the UK and the rest of the world, one impres­sion stands out above all: the market seems strik­ing­ly more real­is­tic than in previ­ous years.

There is less wish­ful think­ing and more sense of reality.

In recent years, the timing of the market recov­ery has been discussed at many events. The hope for a swift return to previ­ous condi­tions was often palpa­ble – or rather, a ‘tender little seedling’. This year, howev­er, we have sensed a differ­ent mood: many of those we spoke to have accept­ed that the current market envi­ron­ment is more than just a brief tran­si­tion­al phase. Inter­est rates, financ­ing costs, valu­a­tion levels, capi­tal require­ments and the geopo­lit­i­cal situ­a­tion have changed the rules of the game. Instead of wait­ing for a return to the old days or hoping that the situ­a­tion will improve in the near future, compa­nies have for some time now been grap­pling with the ques­tion of how they can oper­ate success­ful­ly under today’s condi­tions. The mood was by no means euphor­ic. At the same time, we perceived signif­i­cant­ly less paral­y­sis than we did a year or two ago.

It is the same market, but different.

The much-cited ‘recov­ery’ does not apply to every­one and is by no means uniform. Whilst some market segments contin­ue to gain momen­tum, others are falling by the wayside. As bitter as that is, that is simply the way it is. The differ­ences between asset class­es, loca­tions and prod­uct qual­i­ties are becom­ing more appar­ent. The ‘flight to qual­i­ty’ remains a defin­ing theme, partic­u­lar­ly in the office sector. At the same time, the living and logis­tics segments – with their hybrid forms – are on everyone’s lips.

Qual­i­ty, resilience and the will to succeed are becom­ing deci­sive factors.

If we had to distil the many discus­sions down to a common denom­i­na­tor, it would prob­a­bly be this: qual­i­ty wins … in strate­gies. In busi­ness models. In people.

Because now is “Crunchtime”.

What does this mean for companies?

Compa­nies must focus more close­ly on their own strat­e­gy and devel­op­ment. Rather than wait­ing for a return to previ­ous market condi­tions, the focus is shift­ing to strate­gic prior­i­ties, qual­i­ty and concrete – perhaps even uncon­ven­tion­al – solu­tions. This became clear to me once again during numer­ous conver­sa­tions at the Expo. At the same time, we are seeing a high degree of cost disci­pline, includ­ing on the ‘payroll side’. Invest­ments are being scru­ti­nised even more crit­i­cal­ly. New initia­tives must be justi­fied in a trans­par­ent manner. Resources are being deployed in a more target­ed way. In many places, the focus is shift­ing away from oppor­tunism and towards sustain­able, demon­stra­ble value creation.

Candi­dates must ask them­selves: Candi­dates are doing the same. Today, the best exec­u­tives no longer move jobs simply for a grander title or a high­er salary. They ask differ­ent ques­tions. How viable is the strat­e­gy? How is the compa­ny posi­tioned? What prospects does the plat­form offer? How much scope for influ­ence is there in reality?

What does this mean for VALDIVIA?

For us as an exec­u­tive search consul­tan­cy, it was partic­u­lar­ly fasci­nat­ing to observe just how strong­ly this trend is also reflect­ed in our market. The recruit­ment market current­ly oper­ates accord­ing to mech­a­nisms simi­lar to those of the invest­ment market. Compa­nies are now fill­ing lead­er­ship roles in a far more target­ed manner than they did a few years ago. Senior hires must now make a clear­ly recog­nis­able contri­bu­tion to the company’s success. The days of tradi­tion­al ‘nice-to-have’ appoint­ments are large­ly over. At the same time, poor appoint­ments at manage­ment level are more cost­ly and carry a high­er strate­gic risk. Conse­quent­ly, the require­ments are rising both in terms of profes­sion­al compe­tence – which increas­ing­ly demands ‘breadth’ – and in terms of the absolute person­al and cultur­al fit. We have been observ­ing this trend for months now. New lead­er­ship roles have also emerged, and the scope of respon­si­bil­i­ties with­in tradi­tion­al C‑level func­tions has broad­ened. Our clients are conduct­ing recruit­ment process­es even more care­ful­ly and thor­ough­ly; deci­sions are being discussed in greater depth and candi­dates are being scru­ti­nised even more closely.

Our conclu­sion

EXPO REAL 2026 has shown us a market that is wait­ing for better times. It has shown us a market that is begin­ning to adapt to the new conditions.

The chal­lenges remain. There is no doubt about it.