Newmark’s Paris Play: Acquiring Expertise for Europe’s Next Cycle

PARIS, France – November 24, 2025 – In the world of commercial real estate, press releases announcing acquisitions are commonplace. But Newmark’s announcement today that it has acquired Catella Valuation Advisory, a premier Paris-based firm, is far more than a simple line-item expansion. It’s a meticulously timed strategic maneuver that reveals a great deal about Newmark’s ambitions in Europe and the shifting dynamics of the global property advisory landscape. This isn’t just about buying a company; it’s about buying deep-rooted influence, technical prowess, and a strategic foothold in continental Europe just as the market shows signs of bottoming out.

For financial analysts and institutional investors, the story isn't the acquisition itself, but the why and the why now. Newmark is placing a significant bet not just on the French market, but on the future of real estate valuation, where global scale must be seamlessly integrated with unimpeachable local expertise.

Anatomy of a Power Move

At first glance, the numbers are impressive. Catella Valuation Advisory is no small player. In 2024 alone, the firm valued a staggering €40 billion ($46 billion) in properties for over 180 clients. This isn't a startup; it's a mature, respected institution founded in 2005 with a team whose members average 15 years of tenure. Led by the highly-regarded Jean-François Drouets, a chartered surveyor and board member of The European Group of Valuers' Associations (TEGoVA), Catella represents the gold standard of French property valuation.

Newmark isn't just bolting on revenue. It's acquiring a turnkey operation steeped in technical rigor and client trust, two commodities that cannot be built overnight. The integration of the entire 12-person team, including its leadership, under the Newmark brand is a crucial detail. This signals a strategy of empowerment, not assimilation, aiming to leverage Catella's established reputation rather than subsume it. As Jean-François Drouets, now President of Newmark Catella Valuation, noted, the move offers a “unique opportunity to broaden our scope of action and henceforth operate on a global and European scale.”

This acquisition dramatically accelerates Newmark’s French expansion, which only began in earnest with its Paris office launch in March 2024. The move brings its headcount in the country to around 200, demonstrating an aggressive push to build a full-service platform that can compete at the highest level.

Timing the Market Turn

The timing of this deal is perhaps its most telling feature. The European commercial real estate market has been navigating a painful valuation correction, battered by interest rate hikes and economic headwinds. Transaction volumes have been subdued as investors waited for price discovery to run its course. According to recent market analysis, average European asset prices fell significantly from their 2021 peak. Fundraising for European CRE funds plummeted by over 50% in 2023.

However, the tide is beginning to turn. In the third quarter of 2025, European commercial property values posted their fifth consecutive quarterly increase. While modest, this trend suggests a growing consensus that the worst of the price correction is over. A gradual recovery is now widely expected to take hold in 2025. It is precisely in this environment—at the inflection point between downturn and recovery—that the most astute strategic capital is deployed.

By acquiring a top-tier valuation firm now, Newmark positions itself perfectly for the impending rebound. As transaction volumes increase, the demand for reliable, defensible valuations will surge. In an uncertain market, investors and lenders exhibit a flight to quality, not only in the assets they target but also in the advisors they trust. Newmark has just acquired one of the most trusted names in a key European market, ready to capture that demand. The firm’s global President of Valuation & Advisory, John D. Busi, articulated this strategy clearly, stating the goal is to “provide consistent, high-quality valuation insight to investors, lenders and occupiers across global markets.”

The Strategic Bet on Paris

While this is an EMEA-wide play, its anchor is firmly in Paris. The decision to fortify its French presence is a calculated bet on the city’s role as a primary engine of European commerce and real estate activity. France accounted for 12% of total European transaction volume in 2024, holding its own alongside the UK and Germany. More strikingly, while other markets struggled, France showed a remarkable 6.8% annual rise in office values in the second quarter of 2025, signaling underlying resilience.

Catella’s deep expertise across a wide array of asset classes—from traditional office and retail to specialized sectors like clinics and nursing homes (EHPAD)—provides Newmark with immediate, granular insight into the entire French market. This is critical for serving global institutional clients who are increasingly diversifying their portfolios beyond prime office and logistics assets. Having this capability in-house in Paris gives Newmark a significant competitive advantage.

Alexandre Gotti, President of Newmark in France, called the addition of the Catella team an “obvious choice given its outstanding reputation.” This move solidifies Paris as Newmark’s continental European hub, complementing its powerful London base established through earlier acquisitions like Gerald Eve. It creates a formidable London-Paris axis that can service clients across the continent with unparalleled depth.

A Reflection of Industry Consolidation

Ultimately, this acquisition is a microcosm of a larger trend reshaping the professional services industry. Globalization has created a client base of massive, sophisticated institutional investors who operate across continents. These clients demand a service model that is both globally integrated and locally expert. They want a single point of contact that can provide consistent reporting and standards from New York to London to Paris, but with the nuanced, on-the-ground intelligence that only a local veteran can provide.

Organic growth is too slow to meet this demand. The only viable path is strategic acquisition, folding in best-in-class local and regional firms to build a global mosaic of expertise. Newmark’s 26.3% year-to-date revenue growth in its Valuation & Advisory service line is a testament to the success of this strategy. The Catella deal is not an outlier but a continuation of a well-defined global playbook. By securing a premier valuation team in a critical European gateway city, Newmark is not just preparing for the next market cycle; it is actively constructing the platform it believes will dominate it.