For the first time since 2009 London has been named as the best city
for foreign property investors in a survey conducted by the Association
of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE).
Intention to invest in property in the U.K. capital came out on top ahead of New York, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles. Tokyo was ranked in sixth place while Sydney made tenth.
AFIRE
member firms have an estimated US$2 trillion or more in real estate
assets under management globally. The survey was conducted in the fourth
quarter of 2013 by the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate,
Wisconsin School of Business.
“Foreign investors’ continued and
growing interest in the U.S. real estate markets reflects fully
functioning capital markets for both debt and equity that provide access
to a broad range of investment opportunities,” said Steven Hason,
Managing Director and Co-Head of Americas Real Estate for APG Asset
Management US Inc. and the newly elected Chairman of AFIRE.
“Within
the U.S, investors can participate in investments ranging from
predictable core investments in gateway markets to potentially
higher-yielding investments in secondary markets. And, in today’s
markets, the survey reinforces AFIRE members’ beliefs that the U.S.
provides an advantage for both safety and stability.”
Spain was
named the second best country for capital appreciation, receiving 21.1
percent of the votes, almost half of what the first-place U.S. attained.
Last year, Spain was barely mentioned, a distant fifth.
Madrid
and Munich appeared among the top ten global cities, eclipsing
Washington, D.C. While the U.S. remains the primary target for foreign
investment, 69 percent of survey respondents projected they would also
have modest to major net increases in their European portfolio.
After
China, in first place and moving up a notch from last year, the next
four emerging countries were in Latin America. Brazil fell from first
place into second and Mexico advanced into the third slot followed by
Columbia and Peru. Mexico has appeared on the emerging market list since
2009, but always in fourth or fifth place. Last year Columbia and Peru
were tied for seventh place.
Some 44 percent of survey
respondents also project a modest increase in their investments into
Latin America while 19 percent project a major increase. Thirty-one
percent say they intend to maintain or reinvest their allocations.
Andrew Batt,
International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To
contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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