Middle Tennessee commercial real estate pros surveyed by Southeast Venture largely expect 2012 to be better than last year in a number of ways, but say the biggest obstacle to strong growth in the local property market is the uncertainty tied to the presidential election.

For the second year in a row, Southeast polled dozens of the region's CRE leaders. They expect leasing activity to grow more strongly than sales this year — especially in the office sector, where some people say new developments are needed to absorb demand — and don't see the red-hot apartment market cooling off any time soon.

“When we surveyed our local commercial real estate community last year, a loosening of lending and financing policies was the top reason cited for the optimistic sales outlook,” said Todd Alexander, a principal at Southeast Venture. “The same is essentially true this year, but the elections are clouding the outlook. We won’t know until the elections are over whether the local market will be worse or better off.”

Check out the full report here.