New York is home to the busiest commercial real estate market in the world, so it’s no surprise that some big names in the business topped Crain’s new list of the largest local brokerages.
In the inaugural edition of the rankings — based on the number of licensed commercial brokers and agents working in the New York metropolitan area — CBRE emerged as the largest brokerage with 771 licensed brokers and agents here. That team oversaw 1,681 commercial transactions involving more than 31 million square feet of New York real estate space during 2024 alone. Although the firm is based in Dallas, it leases 180,000 square feet at the MetLife Building and is expanding its New York office footprint this year with a new financial headquarters at Lever House.
JLL, which has its Americas headquarters in Chicago but maintains office space in the city, ranked No. 2 on the list with 525 licensed brokers and agents. The firm employs 4,440 local workers, more than any other brokerage on the list, and completed 1,997 New York area commercial transactions that touched nearly 49 million square feet last year.
Cushman & Wakefield, another Chicago-based company, rounded out the top three with 378 local brokers and agents and nearly 4,000 local staff.
Midtown-based firms Newmark and Savills followed at Nos. 4 and 5 with 234 and 120 local brokers and agents, respectively.
For this list, the “New York area” includes New York City and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties in New York, plus Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties in New Jersey. To qualify, firms must have a New York-area office. Crain’s uses staff research, extensive surveys and the most current references available to produce its lists, but there is no guarantee that these listings are complete. At times, Crain’s estimates figures.
For a downloadable version of this list, contact information and more, visit the Data Center.
