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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Real Estate Now Truly Global

by Lew Sichelman

The 70-story tower rising hard by the Kremlin in the Moscow Business Center is more than a part of just another mixed-use complex. Being built by Turkish developer Summa, it also stands as an example of the growing internationalization of the real estate sector.

Another symbol of that growth is MIPIM, the International Property Market, which was held earlier this month in Cannes, France. More than 21,000 people from all over the globe attended the four-day event, an all-time high. The record registration, says the conference's organizers, Paris-based Reed-MIDEM, reflects the "substantial appetite" investors are showing for property world-wide.

The Russian contingent alone includes some 100 investors, developers, consultant and other real estate market players. Five new exhibitors -- the countries of Georgia, Liechtenstein, Mauritius and Mongolia as well as U.S. territory Puerto Rico -- are among the hundreds of exhibitors.

The United Arab Emirates also has a strong presence, including first-timer TAMEER, which owns some of the tallest properties in the world. Although the UAE draws the ire of most Americans, many of the world's largest developers are eying Dubai. New construction in the UAE city-state, including a tulip-shaped hotel on a man-made island just off the coast by none other than Donald Trump, is valued at more than $50 billion. That's billion -- with a "B."

Further testament to the fact that real estate has gone truly global were two research reports released here. One, by Jones Lang LaSalle, said that a third of the world's transactions -- some $475 billion worth in 2005, an increase of 21 percent from the previous year -- were cross-border deals.

"Investors are searching further and further from their home bases," said Tony Harrel, chief executive officer of the firm's International Capital Group.

A report covering the 15 European Union countries by CB Richard Ellis, though smaller in scope, found a similar phenomenon. While purchases by investors within their own countries rose by just over 20 percent last year compared to 2004 levels, cross-border acquisitions increased by more than 70 percent, the firm said.

"There's been a big increase in the amount of capital moving around the European market, with a significant increase in the amount coming into Europe from the outside," said Nick Axford, who heads the Ellis firm's research and consulting department. "Across the board, real estate really is now an international market."

Both reports also suggest the trend will continue. "For every dollar of assets traded last year," said Horrell, "there's more than $2 chasing deals."

The Jones Lang report classifies cross-border activity as including both "inter-regional" deals in which either or both the buyer and seller originate from outside the region where the underlying property is located as well as "intra-regional" transactions in which either or both seller and buyer are outside the country.

It found that investment transactions fitting that definition "rocketed" by 40 percent in '05, and now account for almost a quarter of total global real estate transactions.

On the buy side, the total amount of inter-regional capital was $32.9 billion; on the sell side, $28.9 billion.

While the United States was the most popular destination for inter-regional investment, 60 percent of inter-regional purchase volumes were in Europe, the report said. "North America is by far the biggest market, but last year it attracted only 16 percent" of cross-border activity as counted in U.S. dollars, Horrell said.

American sources of capital continued to diversify internationally, accounting for 14 percent of all inter-regional purchases, according to the Jones Lang report.

Australians were "highly visible," too, also accounting for 14 percent of the total as the most active foreign investor in U.S. property. Middle Easterners accounted for 13 percent, including several "trophy" properties in the United States.

The CBRE study also found U.S. interests to be the dominant European investor, with much of the $13 billion they invested last year flowing into Germany, France and the U.K. At the same time, though, U.S. investor also sold $8 billion worth of European property in 2005, mainly in the U.K. and France.

While Irish investors put only $7 billion into play, they were the biggest cross-border buyers "in net terms," the study said.

Both studies expect the trend to continue. The market should be "very strong" in 2006, said Peter Schreppel, who heads CBRE International Investment.

Published: March 29, 2006

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