R. Sonne
Executive Director • United States
About
R. Christian Sonne CRE, MAI, FRICS is a prominent American commercial real estate economist and appraiser, widely recognized as a leading national expert in the self-storage asset class. He currently is an Executive Director in the Self-Storage valuation practice at Cushman & Wakefield.
Due to his expertise and experience in the sector, Sonne has been published over 100 times and has spoken on self-storage topics throughout the United States, Canada, England and Japan. He authored “Self-Storage Economics and Appraisal” published by the Appraisal Institute (2012 and 2nd Edition 2025).
Since beginning his career in valuation in 1984, Sonne has worked with clients on a wide variety of core and specialty property types at Deloitte, Bank of America and at his own firm The Sonne Group from 1993 to 2006. Recognizing the unique characteristics and high returns of self-storage, he specialized in self-storage in 1998 and formed Self Storage Economics. Sonne previously served as the founder and Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield’s Valuation & Advisory practice’s Self Storage Valuation Group.
Education
Sonne earned his Bachelor of Science in Political Science from The University of Utah.
Affiliations
- MAI designation, Appraisal Institute
- CRE designation, the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE)
- Fellow, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS)
- Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in the following states:
- California – AG 004891
- New York – 46000052655
- Hawaii – SLA-1391
- Florida – RZ4508
- Texas – 1382010-CG
