Cross-border investors poised for return to Americas, JLL

Although transactions in the Americas are down significantly, cash-rich cross-border investors are well positioned to make a return to investment in North and South America in 2010, Jones Lang LaSalle’s International Capital Group experts said today at the EXPO REAL show in Munich, Germany.
For the first half of 2009, global investment transaction volumes netted just $76 bn (EUR 51.9 bn). The United States experienced the largest decline—falling by 77 % year-over-year. Japan has now surpassed the United States and United Kingdom as the most active investor region with $15 bn (EUR 10 bn) worth of transactions in the first half of 2009. The United States is a close second at $14 bn (EUR 9.5 bn), followed by the United Kingdom with $11 bn (EUR 7.5 bn).
‘In the last two months, we’ve seen German and Asian investors increase their interest in US investment. Several stateside closings also are providing some early encouragement that foreign investors are slowing rising off the sidelines for the right opportunities in the best markets,’ said Steve Collins, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s International Capital Group.
‘Right now, the coastal markets such as New York, D.C. and San Francisco are drawing interest from a select few foreign investors bidding and winning on off-market investments today. It seems the German open- and close-end funds and the Asian development companies are getting ready for an investment push in first quarter 2010.’