NEW YORK CITY—As the end of the year approached—and prior to theacquisition of Massey Knakal Realty Services by Cushman &Wakefield—Bob Knakal, chairman and aco-founder of the firm, opined on the state of the investment salesmarket over the past year and where it's headed during a recentgathering of the New York State Society of Certified PublicAccountants.

“This is the best commercial real estate market I've ever seenbecause more stuff is selling then ever before,” he said. “Themarket is on pace for an all-time record. We're at 5,100 propertiestraded for the year and we think it'll be 5,200 or even 5,300 byyear-end.”

Further, Knakal asserted, “I've never seen more first timebuyers in my 30 year career than I'm seeing now. In the last threeyears, we have sold to investors from 51 different countries andmost of them aren't real estate people, they own a car dealershipin China or a spice export/import operation in India and they havesome money so they want to buy property here.”