Canada Remains the Top Global Investor in the US

LOS ANGELES—Canada is the unrivaled global investor in U.S. real estate with nearly $10 billion of direct investments in 2014—ahead of Norway, China, Japan and Germany. This according to recent research from CBRE.

Global direct investment in US real estate totaled $41 billion in 2014—about 11% of all investment in U.S. property assets. This represents a 6% increase in global investment when compared to 2013.

Canada was the lead global buyer of US real estate last year with 26% of direct foreign investment—$9.7 billion. Canadian investors have already transacted a significant $2.75 billion in US real estate as of mid-January 2015. Canadian real estate investment in the US was one of the largest cross-border capital flows in the world in 2014 after US-to-UK and Hong Kong-to-China capital flows.

Norway was the second largest global investor in U.S. real estate in 2014 with 11% of direct foreign investment—$4.4 billion and a 120% increase year-over-year. China and Japan reached total investment levels in the US of $3.8 billion (+6%) and $3.5 billion (+397%), respectively, each representing 9% of the global total. German buyers transacted $2.9 billion (+5%) in U.S. real estate, representing 7% of the global total.

“While we have seen rapidly rising Chinese global investment and oil-rich countries in the Middle East or Norway increasing their allocations to global real estate, Canadian buyers continue to dominate foreign investment in the US and should remain on the radar screens of American investors and owners of US real estate,” said Chris Ludeman, global president, CBRE Capital Markets.

“Canadians, other global investors and Americans share the same challenge—finding attractive opportunities with reasonable pricing that can produce a favorable risk-adjusted return. That said, we expect the investment climate to remain brisk and US volumes will continue rising in 2015."

The U.S. is by far the largest destination for Canadian global capital. Of the $22 billion that Canada invested outside of its borders in 2014, 44% went to the U.S. The next highest shares—17% and 14%—went to Australia and the UK, respectively. It should be noted that the U.S. market share of Canadian global investment dropped below its 2007-14 average of 48% in 2014.

“Canadian investors find US real estate attractive for many of the same reasons that other countries do. The US offers opportunities for value creation, healthy cash flows and favorable risk-adjusted returns,” said Ross Moore, CBRE's director of research for Canada. “The level of Canadian investment is highly correlated with the health of the American economy and exchange rates, but the overriding motivation is that Canadian institutional investors need to look beyond their borders to find product and achieve greater diversification.”

Canadian investment is more geographically widespread across the US than other global capital. This should not be surprising given the magnitude of Canadian investment, its high degree of familiarity with US markets beyond the gateway cities, and the relatively low cost and time commitment for Canadian investment professionals to travel to US markets.

For all property types combined, as with total global capital flows into the US, New York is the leading destination for Canadian real estate capital, followed by Boston and Broward County in Florida, which made the list due to a significant hotel acquisition. Seattle is somewhat unusual for global capital, but not unusual for Canadian capital given its proximity to Canada and, in particular, Vancouver.