Foreign Investors Drove 58% of CRE Deals in Washington in 2013

WASHINGTON, DC-Last year foreign investors accounted for 58.1% of single-asset deals in the District according to Jones Lang LaSalle. It is a significant jump from the previous year, which also experienced a good-sized uptick in foreign investment. In 2012 foreign buyers accounted for 30.7% of DC commercial asset sales. Historically that figure is around 18.3%.

One could assume from this trajectory that foreign investors can’t get enough of DC for their portfolios. Yet the JLL figures follow a separate report released by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate this week, which appeared to reach the seemingly opposite conclusion–that DC’s flaws are becoming ever more apparent to this crowd as the appeal of secondary markets beckons. AFIRE reported that that DC—traditionally a gateway city of high-repute—completely fell off the top five global cities list.