The Year of Cross-Border Investing

Global Logistics Properties now controls 117 million square feet of US industrial, including this facility.

NEW YORK CITY—Looking back at 2015’s buyer composition, Real Capital Analytics says the year’s real story was the activity of cross-border investors in the US market. “While this class of investors captured only 16% of the deal activity in the market, the pace of growth in their purchase activity was notable,” according to RCA’s latest US Capital Trends Report. “Deal volume for these investors was up 123% from a year earlier,” with purchases running the gamut from high-profile properties in gateway cities to “no-nonsense, high-yield industrial assets in secondary and tertiary markets.”

In its latest US Investment Outlook, JLL similarly notes that cross-border transactions increased by nearly 150% year-over-year. Foreign investment in US commercial real estate set a new record of $71.7 billion that exceeded the old (2007) high watermark by more than $30 billion.