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Colliers vs. CBRE vs. JLL: How to Compare Commercial Real Estate Stocks

By Freedom251 Team · · 11 min read

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There is no defensible single “best” stock among Colliers, CBRE and JLL from the figures available here. They combine different businesses, report segments differently and have unequal exposure to recurring outsourcing, project work, leasing, capital-markets transactions and investment fees. A useful comparison therefore starts with revenue quality and organic growth, then tests margins, cash flow, leverage, cycle exposure and finally same-date valuation.

The figures below are primarily full-year 2025 results, with Colliers’ first-quarter 2026 data and JLL’s 2026 segment recast identified separately. Dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars unless noted.

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What the three companies actually do

These are not interchangeable property brokers. Each owns a portfolio of advisory, operating, project, investment-management or technology activities, and the mix determines how much earnings can recur when real-estate transaction volumes fall.

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Company Key reporting structure Examples of more contracted or recurring work More cyclical or performance-sensitive work
Colliers Commercial Real Estate; Engineering; Investment Management Outsourcing and other managed services; investment-management fees Capital Markets, Leasing and performance or catch-up fees
CBRE Advisory Services; Building Operations & Experience (BOE); Project Management; Real Estate Investments (REI) Facilities and property management, occupier outsourcing, loan servicing and project-management contracts Leasing, capital markets, property sales, development and incentive fees
JLL At 2025 year-end: Real Estate Management Services and Workplace Management, Leasing Advisory, Capital Markets Services, Investment Management, and Software and Technology Solutions Real-estate and workplace management, recurring advisory mandates, investment-management fees and software-related services Leasing, capital-markets transactions and performance fees

Names are not economic equivalents. For example, Colliers’ Outsourcing, CBRE’s BOE and JLL’s Real Estate Management Services may all contain contracted operations, but the contracts, pass-through costs, margins and disclosure formats differ. Compare the underlying activities and profitability rather than treating similarly named segments as identical.

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2025 financial snapshot

Measure Colliers CBRE JLL
Reported 2025 revenue Commercial Real Estate: $3.29 billion, up 7%; Engineering: $1.73 billion, up 40%; Investment Management: $532.3 million, up 4% $40.6 billion consolidated revenue $26.1 billion annual revenue
Selected 2025 growth Capital Markets +16%; Leasing +2%; Outsourcing +7%; Engineering +40% Management described increased sales and financing activity and a mix more weighted to resilient sources; a single comparable growth figure is not stated in the cited materials Real Estate Management Services +9%; Capital Markets Services +19%; Leasing +17%
2025 net income Not stated in the cited figures $1.2 billion consolidated net income Not stated in the cited figures
2025 cash generation Not stated on a directly comparable full-year basis in the cited figures Not stated on a directly comparable full-year basis in the cited figures Record operating cash flow of $1.2 billion and nearly $1.0 billion free cash flow

Revenue totals should not be read as a size ranking. CBRE’s BOE and Project Management businesses include substantial pass-through costs, so gross revenue can overstate the economic value retained by the company. Segment profitability or net revenue can be more informative for those activities.

Revenue quality: recurring contracts versus transactions

Colliers

Colliers’ 2025 Commercial Real Estate revenue reached $3.29 billion, a 7% increase. Within that segment, Capital Markets grew 16%, Leasing 2% and Outsourcing 7%. Capital Markets and Leasing generally respond to property-sale, financing and occupancy decisions, while Outsourcing is more closely tied to contracted service relationships. That does not make Outsourcing risk-free: contracts can be rebid, clients can reduce scope and margins can vary by work type.

Engineering was a separate and much faster-growing contributor: $1.73 billion of 2025 revenue, up 40%. Colliers attributed that increase to acquisitions and internal growth. The headline 40% should therefore not be used as a pure organic-growth rate.

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Investment Management produced $532.3 million of revenue, up 4%. Colliers noted that prior-year catch-up fees did not recur. A comparison that ignores such one-time or timing-related fees can misread the direction of recurring earnings.

CBRE

CBRE’s Advisory Services combines leasing, capital markets, loan servicing and valuation. Leasing and capital-markets commissions are transaction-sensitive; loan servicing and valuation assignments can provide a different cadence but still vary with lending and property activity.

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BOE includes facilities management, property management, digital-infrastructure services and flexible-workplace solutions. These activities can be contract-based, but reported revenue includes costs passed through to clients. Project Management, which includes Turner & Townsend, also carries pass-through exposure. For both segments, inspect profitability and retained revenue instead of comparing gross sales directly with an advisory fee business.

CBRE says its mix became more weighted toward resilient sources, particularly occupier outsourcing and project management, and less dependent on property-sale and lease transactions. Its 2025 filing also linked broader capital availability and lower borrowing costs with increased real-estate sales and financing activity. Those are management’s descriptions of the 2025 mix and conditions, not a promise that the mix or market backdrop will persist.

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JLL

JLL reported $26.1 billion of 2025 revenue. Real Estate Management Services grew 9%, Capital Markets Services 19% and Leasing 17%. The latter two rates indicate strong transaction recovery in 2025, but transaction revenue can reverse more quickly than contracted management fees when sales, financing or leasing markets weaken.

JLL’s 2025 annual report also listed Workplace Management and Software and Technology Solutions as separate components. Effective January 1, 2026, JLL moved Software and Technology Solutions into Real Estate Management Services and reported four segments: Real Estate Management Services, Leasing Advisory, Capital Markets Services and Investment Management. Its first-quarter 2026 filing recast comparative prior periods to match the new presentation. Use those recast figures when available; do not build a trend line by placing old segment labels beside new ones without adjustment.

Organic growth versus acquisitions and reporting changes

Growth is only useful after identifying what produced it. A practical decomposition is:

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  • Internal growth: higher volume, pricing, new mandates or expanded work with existing clients.
  • Acquired growth: revenue added when a purchased business enters the consolidated accounts.
  • Currency and accounting effects: translation, revenue recognition or segment reclassification that changes reported comparisons without the same underlying operating change.

Colliers’ Engineering example

The 40% Engineering increase is explicitly a combination of acquisitions and internal growth. Ask management or the filing for constant-currency and same-store indicators before treating it as evidence of a 40% organic runway. The 7% Commercial Real Estate increase is a separate data point and should not be blended with Engineering.

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CBRE’s 2025 structure

CBRE created Project Management as a separate reportable segment after combining its project-management business with Turner & Townsend, in which CBRE owns 70%. BOE was also established as a segment after the acquisition of Industrious. Historical segment comparisons must be adjusted for those changes; otherwise, apparent growth can reflect a new reporting perimeter rather than a change in demand.

JLL’s 2026 recast

JLL’s movement of Software and Technology Solutions into Real Estate Management Services changes the historical presentation beginning January 1, 2026. The company says comparative prior periods were recast. Use recast data for growth rates and margins, and label any older analysis that uses the pre-2026 structure.

Profitability: compare definitions before percentages

Start with GAAP operating income and operating margin, then add each issuer’s adjusted measure with its reconciliation. Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating earnings, net revenue and “resilient” revenue are company-defined and are not interchangeable.

Profitability question Why it matters How to apply it
What is the GAAP operating margin? It captures reported costs and allows a common accounting starting point. Calculate operating income divided by revenue for the same period and segment perimeter.
What is excluded from the adjusted figure? Restructuring, acquisition costs, amortization, incentive compensation or other exclusions can materially change the result. Read the reconciliation; never assume one company’s adjusted EBITDA is equivalent to another’s.
How much revenue is pass-through? High pass-through sales can make a low-margin operation look large on a gross-revenue basis. For CBRE’s BOE and Project Management, examine net revenue, segment profit and margin alongside gross revenue.
Are fees recurring or contingent? Performance and catch-up fees can lift one year and disappear the next. Separate base management fees from incentive, development, transaction and catch-up components.

Colliers reported $124.8 million of adjusted EBITDA on $1.3135 billion of revenue in the first quarter of 2026. Its presentation also described more than 70% of trailing-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA as resilient. Both are Colliers-defined measures; they should be paired with the company’s reconciliation and not treated as GAAP results or directly ranked against CBRE or JLL figures without equivalent disclosures.

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Cash generation: use the same definition and period

Cash flow is a better cross-check on earnings than revenue alone, but only if the numerator is consistent. Operating cash flow reflects working-capital timing. Free cash flow usually subtracts capital expenditures, yet companies can define it differently around acquisitions, restructuring or other items.

JLL reported record 2025 operating cash flow of $1.2 billion and nearly $1.0 billion of free cash flow. Those figures are useful evidence of JLL’s 2025 cash generation, but they do not establish that JLL has the highest sustainable cash conversion because equivalent full-year figures for Colliers and CBRE are not stated in the cited material.

  1. Collect each company’s full-year 2025 operating cash flow and capital expenditures.
  2. Write down the issuer’s exact free-cash-flow definition and reconcile it to GAAP cash flow from operations.
  3. Remove one-time working-capital benefits, acquisition payments and unusually timed tax or incentive payments when estimating normalized cash generation.
  4. Compare free cash flow per diluted share and free-cash-flow margin only after the periods and definitions match.
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Balance sheet, acquisitions and capital allocation

Service companies can fund acquisitions with debt, equity or operating cash. The resulting leverage affects both resilience and the ability to keep buying during a downturn.

Colliers’ first-quarter 2026 presentation showed net debt of 2.3 times pro forma adjusted EBITDA at March 31, 2026 and more than 70% of trailing-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA classified as resilient. This is a date-specific, company-calculated ratio, not a direct ranking against CBRE or JLL. The cited presentation also discussed Canadian-dollar financing; keep that currency distinction separate from Colliers’ U.S.-dollar operating results.

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For all three companies, review:

  • Gross debt, cash and net debt, including lease liabilities where the issuer’s method requires them.
  • Maturity dates, floating-rate exposure and covenant headroom.
  • Cash paid for acquisitions and the revenue or profit added afterward.
  • Dividends and share repurchases versus debt reduction and reinvestment.
  • Goodwill and acquired intangible balances, which can rise even when reported earnings improve.

A company that grows rapidly through acquisitions may deserve a different multiple from one producing similar growth internally, because integration, financing and goodwill risks differ.

Cycle exposure and geographic diversification

Leasing, property sales and financing activity usually respond to interest rates, credit availability, vacancy expectations and investor confidence. Facilities management, property management, loan servicing and long-term project work can be steadier, although contracts can be repriced, lost or delayed.

Global reach spreads clients and currencies; it does not eliminate the real-estate cycle. Compare each company’s actual exposure by service line and region. CBRE explicitly describes both transaction-sensitive revenue and resilient streams, while Colliers’ and JLL’s segment results show that capital-markets and leasing growth can move at different rates from managed services.

When reading quarterly results, look for changes in backlog, renewal rates, fees under management, leasing pipelines, capital-markets win rates, project margins and staffing. Those indicators often reveal a turning cycle before total revenue does.

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How to compare valuation without creating a false winner

The available figures do not establish which stock is cheapest. A valid ranking needs synchronized market data, share counts, balance-sheet values and earnings or cash-flow measures from the same date.

  1. Choose one market date. Use closing prices on the same date for all three securities. Do not combine a current price for one company with an older price for another.
  2. Confirm the security and share count. Identify the primary listed share class, currency, diluted weighted-average shares and any material options or convertibles.
  3. Build enterprise value consistently. A basic formula is enterprise value = equity market capitalization + debt + preferred equity + non-controlling interests − cash and cash equivalents. Follow each issuer’s treatment of leases and restricted cash consistently.
  4. Pick comparable earnings. Compare GAAP earnings first, then a clearly reconciled adjusted measure. Do not mix Colliers’ adjusted EBITDA with CBRE’s or JLL’s adjusted earnings unless the exclusions are aligned.
  5. Normalize the cycle. Use a multi-year average or mid-cycle estimate for transaction-heavy earnings. A single strong year in capital markets can make a cyclical business look permanently cheaper.
  6. Check cash-flow yield. Compare normalized free cash flow divided by equity value, or by enterprise value when the numerator is an enterprise-level measure.
  7. Stress the downside. Model lower leasing and capital-markets volumes, slower project awards, fee compression, higher interest expense and acquisition integration costs.
  8. Document the result. Record the date, share class, diluted shares, debt, cash, metric definitions and source filing so another reader can reproduce the calculation.
Valuation measure Best use Main trap
Price/earnings Comparing equity value with normalized attributable earnings Distorted by one-time fees, amortization, tax differences and cyclical peaks
Enterprise value/adjusted EBITDA Relating operating value to pre-interest cash earnings Issuer-specific adjustments and pass-through revenue can make denominators incomparable
Free-cash-flow yield Testing cash returned or available relative to market value Working-capital timing, acquisition spending and inconsistent definitions
Enterprise value/revenue Useful when margins are temporarily depressed or business mix is changing Ignores major differences in pass-through costs and profitability

A practical comparison worksheet

Fill this table from the latest synchronized filings and market prices before drawing a conclusion. “Not stated” means the cited information here does not provide a comparable number.

Question Colliers CBRE JLL
2025 revenue $3.29 billion Commercial Real Estate; $1.73 billion Engineering; $532.3 million Investment Management $40.6 billion consolidated $26.1 billion consolidated
Clearly identified acquisition effect Engineering’s 40% growth included acquisitions and internal growth Turner & Townsend combination and Industrious acquisition changed segment reporting Software and technology moved into Real Estate Management Services in 2026; comparatives recast
2025 operating cash flow Not stated in the cited figures Not stated in the cited figures $1.2 billion
2025 free cash flow Not stated in the cited figures Not stated in the cited figures Nearly $1.0 billion
Latest leverage datapoint cited 2.3x net debt/pro forma adjusted EBITDA at March 31, 2026 Not stated in the cited figures Not stated in the cited figures
Same-date valuation Not established Not established Not established

What can change the investment case

  • Transaction recovery: Sustained improvement in sales, financing and leasing can lift commission revenue, but a reversal can expose operating leverage.
  • Contract retention and pricing: Outsourcing, facilities and property-management growth depends on renewals, scope changes and the ability to pass through labor and technology costs.
  • Acquisition execution: Integration speed, cross-selling, purchase accounting and leverage determine whether acquired revenue becomes durable earnings.
  • Project economics: Large project-management contracts can add scale while carrying pass-through costs, staffing demands and margin risk.
  • Fee mix: Incentive, performance and catch-up fees can create volatile year-to-year comparisons.
  • Reporting changes: Segment recasts can make an apparent acceleration or slowdown a presentation effect unless historical periods are restated.
  • Interest rates and credit: Borrowing costs influence clients’ transactions and the companies’ own acquisition financing.

Bottom line for comparing the stocks

Use Colliers when you want to understand the interaction of commercial real estate services, a rapidly expanding Engineering platform and investment management, while separating acquisition-led growth from internal growth. Use CBRE’s disclosures to assess the scale of advisory, outsourcing and project-management operations, taking care with pass-through revenue and the 2025 segment changes. Use JLL’s results to examine strong 2025 leasing and capital-markets growth alongside reported operating cash flow and free cash flow, while applying the 2026 recast segments.

The disciplined conclusion is not that one is universally superior or cheapest. It is to build a like-for-like model that separates contracted fees from transactions, acquired growth from organic growth, GAAP results from adjustments, gross revenue from retained economics and current valuation from mid-cycle earning power.

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