CHICAGO—Foreign investment in American industrial assets hasjumped again in the past year, eclipsing the amount invested in2007, and Canadians led the way, according to a new report byAvison Young's industrial capital markets group.Foreign investment in industrial property from January untilmid-November totaled $2.64 billion, compared to $2.33 billion in2007. Canadian investment totaled $1.4 billion for 101 propertiesand South Korean investors came in second, paying $514 million for23 properties.

“The total volume of investment activity in the industrialsector has increased during each of the past three years, up from$2.13 billion in 2012 and $1.16 billion in 2011, according toReal Capital Analytics statistics analyzed inmid-November,” according to the report. And “the most activeinvestors are from Canada, where each year from 2011 to November2013 the total amount disbursed was greater than the dollar volumefrom all other countries combined.”

“I think there are a lot of substantial reasons Canadians investin the US,” says Avison Young's Erik Foster, thereport's Chicago-based author. “It's close by, and from agovernmental standpoint, the countries are very similar.” And manycorporations, such as General Motors, other automanufacturers, and financial institutions, have cross-borderoperations, giving investors on both sides a great deal of comfortin their neighbor.