New York’s stellar position as the center for foreign real estate investing has dimmed in the l
atest survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), which declared London as the top global city among this sector of investors. New York also lost its leadership role among U.S. cities, tying with Los Angeles as the top location for international institutional real estate investors.
Among the top five global cities, London moved up from its third place ranking last year while New York slipped from first to second place. Berlin, last year’s number two ranked city, slipped to third place while Los Angeles remained fourth ranked and Frankfurt leaped from thirteenth place last year to fifth place in the new survey.
“A year later, foreign investors are less concerned about the ramifications of Brexit,” said, Edward M. Casal, AFIRE’s Chairman. “At the same time, the London market has been buoyed by several large sales over the last year. London has a number of attributes as a location for investment, including a stable rule of law, transparency, and use of the English language. In addition, a favorable time zone for international business, deep labor pool, and cultural attributes also help.”
Among the top five U.S. cities, Los Angeles inched up from last year’s second place ranking to tie perennial first-ranked New York at the top of the new list. Seattle, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco rounded out the top five list. Among the U.S. property types being sought, industrial, multifamily and office properties retained their respective first, second and third place rankings from last year to this year.
“With the growth of online shopping, foreign investors continue to rank industrial / logistics properties as their number one investment opportunity,” said Jim Fetgatter, CEO of AFIRE. “The cargo coming into the Port of Los Angeles represents 43 percent of all cargo coming into the United States. Respondents also say on-line shopping is likely to have the biggest effect on real estate over the next five years. With these as benchmarks, it’s easy to see why investors would be bullish on Los Angeles.”
