According to an article published by Carisa Chappell on REIT.com, foreign real estate investors have been favoring commercial real estate in the United States for quite some time now. Chappell explains, “Markets in the United States dominate as the top global cities for real estate investment, according to participants in the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate’s (AFIRE) annual survey,” (Chappell, Survey Shows Internationals Investors Favor U.S. Commercial Real Estate). The top global cities that have been favored for investment were: New York, London, San Francisco, Washington, and Houston – with the United States representing four of top five.
But what is the reasoning for this? Chief executive of AFIRE discussed with REIT.com why the U.S. is preferred to all other countries in the world. In Chappell’s article, Fetgatter says, “‘I think non U.S. investors have some faith that the U.S. is coming out of the recession. The recovery may be slow, but I think they feel like it’s a definite recovery and we’re not falling back down into another recession,’” (Chappell, Survey Shows Internationals Investors Favor U.S. Commercial Real Estate). In addition, Fetgatter noted noted that commercial real estate in the U.S. is one of the most stable, secure investments that people can rely on.
Apart from the United States, Turkey was also noted as being a country that contained an increase of renewed interest in AFIRE’s survey. Turkey was ranked number three for the top emerging countries to invest in this past year and has been on the rise in previous ones. With Turkey’s location, “Fetgatter attributed the renewed interest to Turkey being the logical place for companies looking to establish a foothold in the Middle East,” (Chappell, Survey Shows Internationals Investors Favor U.S. Commercial Real Estate).
In terms of the latest global trends for commercial real estate, it looks like America and Turkey are up there on the list, but if you want more information on this topic, check out REIT.com’s article here.