Even during an industry slowdown, multifamily companies need to invest in strengthening their management teams.
For instance, Joe Lubeck, CEO of American Landmark, already a sizable firm ranking No. 34 on the 2025 National Multifamily Housing Council list of the top apartment owners in the country, plans to grow its leadership ranks even more in 2026.
To fuel that expansion after raising approximately $400 million in equity commitments, he’s recruiting technology and capital markets executives to grow his investor base.
“We're growing our senior-level technology team because there's so much great new tech coming,” Lubeck told Multifamily Dive. “But there's so much of it that you need to know what you need, what's applicable, what's fully baked, as opposed to what's still testing.”
Lubeck isn’t alone, according to executive recruiters. After a couple of years of softness, headhunters are hopeful that 2026 will be better as firms begin to restart their investment and development engines, while also continuing to incorporate technology and artificial intelligence into their platforms.
Boom then bust
As the apartment market expanded in 2021 and 2022, executive salaries ballooned. Companies that were eager to buy and build paid top dollar for talent.
“In the post-COVID world, we were in this position where there was a slowdown for six to nine months and then all of a sudden there were a lot fewer people willing to move and a lot more companies trying to get them,” said Ben Shamah, president of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based recruiting firm and full-service staffing agency Sanford Barrows Group. “All of a sudden, you had these bidding wars that resulted in the tremendous overpaying of candidates.”
Then, as dealmaking slowed and starts fell, executive hiring quickly cooled. Lisa Flicker, senior managing partner and head of real estate with New York City-based organizational consulting firm Jackson Lucas, called 2022 a “structural break” for real estate executive search. “When rates spiked in 2022, I think hiring shifted,” she told Multifamily Dive.
Development and dealmaking roles have been hit the hardest. Jim McGuffin, managing director and real estate practice lead at Chicago-based search firm Hirewell, who called the environment “choppy” in 2025, said those positions have fallen by 50% to 75%.
“Right now, across all asset classes that we hire for, we probably have six or seven development roles across our entire team,” McGuffin said late last year. “In 2021 to 2023, we would have had 25 to 30.”
However, the decline in executive search roles hasn’t necessarily meant a significant spike in layoffs.
“People have held on to their talent pretty much across the board,” said Kimberly Byrum, managing principal of multifamily for Newport Beach, California-based advisory firm Zonda. “I have not seen many layoffs occur during this time because everybody kept thinking it's going to ramp back up, but it still has just stalled out.”
In fact, some firms have dusted off their 2008-era playbooks and moved their development talent into asset management, according to Flicker. “One thing I noticed from a lot of my development clients is they have taken a lot of their investment professionals, because they haven't been doing direct deals, and moving them into asset management, and maybe to a lesser extent, to development,” she said.
A better year ahead?
As the calendar turns to 2026, recruiters aren’t totally sure what to expect. Dealmakers and developers are hopeful that business improves for them over the next 12 months. If that happens, firms may move their developers back to building and away from asset management, for instance.
“I think there is this feeling of, ‘We need to get people in who can help us develop and reposition our assets,’” Flicker said. “It's not necessarily growth hiring, but if the investment folks go back to being investment folks, where are the gaps, whether it's in development or asset management?”
In many cases, recruiters may be seeking younger executives rather than grizzled veterans to fill those gaps. While saving money is one driver, it’s not the only reason multifamily firms may look to younger hires.
“Doing the exact same model that was done for the last 30 years might not necessarily mean the same positive results anymore,” Sanford Barrows Group’s Shamah said. “So I think that companies are open to taking a little bit more of a risk, understanding that they just can't necessarily afford those higher-level people.”
Flicker said she was getting the most inquiries for heads of development and senior vice presidents of development, as companies look to start building again. However, the searches are more limited than they were a few years ago.
“They’re bringing in one great hire to manage that, as opposed to putting in a handful of people,” Flicker said.
AI driving executive demand
Often, real estate firms, including those in multifamily, are seen as slow to adopt technology. But some firms have found that they can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines as artificial intelligence adoption becomes universal.
For instance, American Landmark has decided it's time to hire tech leaders to navigate AI and the plethora of tech offerings available to apartment firms.
“The reality is we know AI is going to be important, but it needs to be used smartly,” Lubeck said. “It needs to be used effectively. And, we want to use best-in-class partners to make sure that we're doing the best we can.”
While there is a feeling that AI will eventually eliminate positions, Flicker is seeing companies ramp up AI hiring at both the senior and junior levels. That should only increase this year.
“Doing the exact same model that was done for the last 30 years might not necessarily mean the same positive results anymore. So I think that companies are open to taking a little bit more of a risk, understanding that they just can't necessarily afford those higher-level people.”
Ben Shamah
President, Sanford Barrows Group
“They may need 10 analysts,” Flicker said. “But they want those 10 analysts to not only be able to create a financial model, but have some understanding of how to use predictive analytics and how to be a data analyst.”
Eventually, AI investment could claim multifamily jobs, along with jobs in other fields, but Flicker doesn’t think the industry is there quite yet. “There are a few jobs that I think were just displaced because of the internet, but I believe it probably created more jobs,” she said. “I do feel like for the next five years that is going to be the case [with AI].”
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