Foreign Investors Plan Higher Allocations to US CRE

WASHINGTON, DC—Foreign investors remain eager to invest in US real estate assets with the vast majority, or 90%, of survey respondents noting they will maintain or increase their allocations here over the next twelve months, according to the 23rd Annual Survey taken among the members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. Indeed, the US was voted the most stable and secure country for investment, surpassing second-place Germany by 55 percentage points, and third-place UK by 60 percentage points. However, that enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily extend to what is ordinarily a top US target market for this group: Washington, DC.

For this year’s survey the nation’s Capitol was at the bottom of the five-city US ranking; it dropped even further on the list of top global cities to No. 15, down from last year when it was tenth-ranked. “The continued fall of DC surprises me,” James A. Fetgatter, CEO of AFIRE tells GlobeSt.com. True, other surveys show a continued appetite for DC real estate among foreign investors but the AFIRE membership tends to be more conservative, Fetgatter says—which makes the AFIRE survey that much more eyebrow raising. “DC is a great market for this group but for several reasons these investors are losing interest or at least growing more cautious about investing here.”