Real Estate Investment Now Focused on Americas and EMEA

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Jones Lang LaSalle's latest study found global commercial real estate investment has more than doubled since the dark days of 2009, which makes for a nice headline.

But the real story was the disparity in investment activity from region to region. Asia, for example, saw investment volumes drop by 34 percent from the first quarter of 2010, despite increases in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the Americas, investments are up more than 400 percent from the second quarter of 2009, but that simply reflects the woeful state of the business a year ago. While demand in the U.S. remained steady from the first part of the year, Brazil and Canada posted substantial gains since the first quarter, far outpacing the U.S.

"Investor demand also continues to be strong for core assets in the United States, but the lack of product supply continues to hinder direct investment volumes," the report concludes.

But more product is entering the U.S. market, which should push 2010 investment volumes up 80 percent over 2010, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's Steve Collins, head of JLL's international capital group in the Americas.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) saw a "modest" 15 percent increase in investments, even though the numbers were up 80 percent from a year ago. London and the U.K led the way, accounting for 40 percent of the volume.

Overall, the global investment numbers are "still less than half the pre-credit crisis levels of 2006 and 2007," the report notes.

"But we must take into account the fact that those were heady years for commercial real estate investment, with unprecedented record trading volumes," said Arthur de Haast, head of the international capital group.

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