2026 Forecast: Luis Mendonca, Elite Wellness Amenity Group

What is your 2026 outlook, and which trends in your industry will influence the CRE market?
CRE stays market-led and operator-driven. Capital remains selective, refinancing pressure persists, and winning business plans will be built on occupancy protection, expense discipline, and measurable performance , not big bets on rent growth. The trends shaping the year are OPEX-first value creation, tighter scrutiny on amenity ROI, and resident-experience strategies that lift daily engagement and renewal intent. Wellness operations are becoming a repeatable lever to stabilize NOI.

What challenges or opportunities do you see for your clients or projects in 2026?
2026 will reward owners who treat wellness as an operating strategy, an activation , not a CapEx project. With capital selective and concessions pressuring margins, the advantage is OPEX-first value creation: consistent on-site programming that drives amenity utilization, daily engagement, resident sentiment, and renewal intent. Those inputs reduce turnover drag, support occupancy stability, and protect NOI, without the long timelines and basis risk that come with build outs and equipment-heavy investments.

What is your firm prioritizing in 2026 to stay competitive and support your clients?
We’re prioritizing execution and measurement: repeatable on-site activation playbooks, tighter staffing and service standards, and a stronger reporting layer tied to the KPIs owners track utilization, daily engagement, resident sentiment, and renewal intent. We’re also structuring programs as OPEX-first solutions that are easy to approve, scale, and adjust, so clients can protect occupancy and stabilize NOI without relying on CapEx-heavy upgrades.

Wellness is shifting from a “nice-to-have” amenity to an operating strategy when it’s executed consistently and measured against owner KPIs. The clearest path to outperformance is improving controllables utilization, engagement, sentiment, and renewal intent  –  because they directly reduce turnover drag and support NOI stability through the cycle.