Global real estate investors remain confident and their intentions are expansionary, with more than half planning to increase their acquisitions in 2015, according to CBRE’s Global Investor Intentions Survey 2015.

Globally, 53 per cent of investors plan to increase their purchases this year. Investor appetite for cross-regional acquisitions has increased significantly with 38 per cent of respondents intending to invest outside their own region this year – up from 28 per cent in 2014. Among these investors, 31 per cent identified Western Europe as the top destination.

London retained its position as the top city for investment, while other gateway cities such as Tokyo, Sydney, New York and Paris remained in the top ten. Second-tier cities saw an increase in investor interest in 2015, with Madrid, Dallas and Seattle all making the top ten. This reflects investors’ search for more attractive yields, as well as greater knowledge and comfort with a larger number of global cities. There is also a marked increase in appetite among investors from EMEA and North America for value-add and opportunistic investments. In contrast, Asia Pacific saw a significant jump in investors preferring prime core assets at 43 per cent in 2015, compared to 29 per cent last year.

Office and industrial remain the preferred asset classes, selected by 33 per cent and 29 per cent of investors respectively. Investor interest in industrial and logistics assets is being driven by the structural change in the retail sector and the growth of e-commerce; however, there is a limited supply of assets in this sector available for sale, meaning that investors will continue to face challenges when sourcing deals.

Half of respondents identified asset pricing as the top obstacle to acquiring real estate assets. The tight availability of assets (21 per cent) and competition from other investors (19 per cent) were also identified as obstacles in all regions.

“The appetite for global real estate investment is increasing as more investors intend to deploy capital outside of their own region this year. Competition for assets is intensifying and many investors plan to move out the risk curve in search of higher yields–a trend that will result in a stronger focus on value-add and opportunistic investments. We believe that a low interest rate environment, economic expansion in an increasing number of markets, and corresponding improvement in real estate fundamentals will attract capital to commercial real estate,” says Chris Ludeman, Global President, CBRE Capital Markets.


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