CHICAGO—Throughout much of 2015, the real estate world was filled with discussions on when and by how much the Fed would push up interest rates. A lot of this talk subsided after Janet Yellen and her colleagues took a pass when they had another opportunity to boost rates, but the question still hangs over many of the decisions people have to make every day. And at DLA Piper's Global Real Estate Summit, held yesterday in Chicago, a group of leading bankers and capital providers spoke to hundreds of attendees on what they could expect in the next few years.

Ross L. Smotrich, managing director-research for Barclays Capital Inc., moderated the discussion, and began by asking the panelists whether the era of record low interest rates had ended.

“Interest rates almost definitely cannot rise,” said Thomas M. Flexner, global head of real estate, vice chairman, of Citigroup's institutional clients group. He pointed out that the global rate of growth is hovering around 2% to 3%, and at just about 2% in the US. And in such a low-growth environment it is very difficult to create the inflation and wage growth typically cited as reasons to increase interest rates. “I think we will be in this period for a long time.”