Real estate investors across the globe are set to move further up the risk curve in 2015, according to Walter Boettcher, head of research at Colliers International.

Real estate investors across the globe are set to move further up the risk curve in 2015, according to Walter Boettcher, head of research at Colliers International.

Pointing to the results of Colliers International's latest Global Investment Intentions survey, Boettcher said that investors already moved up the risk curve 'quite considerably' in 2014. 'And apparently they still want to go a bit further. There's risk appetite from investors in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the US -they all want to take on more risk. It's being driven by an international search for yield.'

Boettcher made the comments at PropertyEU's Europe/UK Outlook Investment Briefing held at the London office of Colliers International on Tuesday. 'The international search for yield is extraordinary,' he added. 'Anywhere in the world, everybody is seeking to expand their property presence.' The UK is an exception in this context and demonstrated the largest potential reduction, possibly because the market is already fully priced, he added.

A key factor driving investors up the risk curve is that the amount of capital raised for real estate investment in 2014 was significantly higher than in the last five years, Boettcher pointed out. 'The cycle has still got a lot of life in it, there's more weight of capital coming through. In fact, there are two things driving the market: as long as interest rates stay low, there?'s no other place to place capital. The other factor is the sheer weight of money.'

Another key takeaway from the survey, Boettcher said, is that global investors are looking for yield wherever they can find it. 'And they are willing to leverage that up with debt now that debt has come back into the market.'

He added, however, that global real estate investment would play out different regionally. 'The lack of debt in Europe and the constrained debt in the UK stands in contrast to the US where debt has come back in a big way. US investors are now coming back into Europe looking for fairly high leveraged IRRs.'