CHICAGO—@properties has just released its latest annual development market report, for which it completed almost 100 surveys with developers, bankers, architects, contractors and its own developers. In addition to analyzing trends in neighborhoods such as River North, the Gold Coast, the South Loop and others, the real estate brokerage firm asked its respondents to identify the principal risks for residential for-sale development in Chicago this year.

“This is the most comprehensive @report we've ever assembled, and the best thing is that the most important insights are coming directly from the people who are designing, building, financing and selling new, for-sale construction in Chicago,” says Michael Golden, co-founder of @properties, the city's largest brokerage by market share. “It's not just an analysis of the market from 30,000 feet. It's people from all sectors of the industry saying, 'Here's what we're dealing with. Here are the big challenges and the big opportunities.'”

When asked to name the top three concerns, the one that was considered the most worrisome was rising construction costs. Those costs have been increasing for a few years, and 2016 is not likely to provide any relief. “General contractors responding to our construction survey were unanimous in forecasting 1% to 5% growth in the overall cost of condo/apartment construction for 2016,” according to the report.