A relatively tight club of 34 commercial real estate firms handled nearly $3.6 billion in property sales across the Portland metro last year and leased more than 22.6 million square feet, according to a new ranking from the Portland Business Journal. All that activity ran through a pool of about 571 licensed commercial brokers working the region, underscoring how a small roster of players still dominates local dealmaking.
The ranking, compiled by PBJ data editor Brandon Sawyer, is published in print and expanded online. The digital version adds more firms and extra metrics to the core list, and the totals reflect activity from last year (2025), based on a mix of firm submitted data and PBJ research. The full firm by firm breakdown lives in a subscriber only data table.
Those big headline numbers sit on top of a much softer office market. CBRE reported in its Q4 2025 figures that Portland leasing and investment sales were muted last year, with office leasing landing in the low millions of square feet and professional market sales staying subdued. CBRE logged roughly $313 million in Portland office sales for 2025, a reminder that big brokerages can still move sizable packages even while downtown fundamentals remain under pressure.
Who shows up on these lists
Both national platforms and regional outfits crowd the upper tiers of these rankings. The familiar national names that surface on major deals, including CBRE, JLL, Kidder Mathews and Marcus & Millichap, mix with locally focused shops on statewide rosters. Oregon Business has previously ranked CBRE, Kidder Mathews and JLL near the top by agent counts, highlighting how national scale and specialist local teams share the Portland market. For landlords and tenants, that split helps determine who gets called in on large assignments and which firms effectively control the flow of listings.
What the numbers mean for Portland
The PBJ tally, nearly $3.6 billion in sales, more than 22.6 million square feet leased and 571 licensed metro brokers, points to a market where a relatively small set of firms handles an outsized share of the work, according to the Portland Business Journal. That concentration can speed up deal execution in a choppy market, but it also concentrates downside risk when valuations reset, especially for downtown office towers. Market players have warned that steep discounts on high profile buildings are making underwriting trickier and cooling some lender appetite.
Montgomery Park is the go to example. The roughly 756,000 square foot complex changed hands after foreclosure for about $33 million, a fraction of its 2019 price, illustrating how far Portland office values have fallen. The sale, along with other discounted tower trades, has stoked concern over shrinking property tax collections that support city and county budgets. ConnectCRE detailed the Montgomery Park transaction, while Axios Portland has followed how bargain sales are starting to show up in local tax forecasts.
The Business Journal’s full digital ranking breaks the region’s players down firm by firm, but remains behind a paywall. For brokers, owners and civic officials, the high level totals still offer an early read on which companies are capturing the bulk of deal flow heading into 2026. The field is unlikely to change overnight, so expect the familiar blend of national platforms and nimble local operators to keep shaping who shows up on the buyer lists for the next wave of downtown and suburban trades.
