Dallas led U.S. in 2020 commercial property deals

The Dallas area led the way in commercial real estate transactions in 2020 as many larger U.S. markets were harder hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The local market had commercial real estate deals valued at more than $ 19.7 billion, bringing Los Angeles to nearly $ 19 billion, according to a report by Real Capital Analytics.

Previously, Dallas ranked third in the country among the top markets in both 2019 and 2018.

Several large industrial and residential transactions in North Texas have put the area at the top of the annual report by the New York-based research group.

“Dallas was the leading US commercial real estate investment market in 2020,” Real Capital Analytics researchers said in their report. “Without portfolio activity, however, Los Angeles would have been number one for two consecutive years.

“The portfolio activities in the apartment and industrial sectors helped move Dallas to number one.”

Real estate transactions in the Dallas area were down 25% from 2019, compared to a statewide decrease of 32% year over year.

More than $ 10 billion of North Texas commercial real estate business in 2020 was industrial buildings. Over $ 5 billion in apartment transactions were recorded in the region.

In 2020, only $ 251 million in hotel transactions were completed in Dallas.

According to Real Capital Analytics, the nationwide commercial property deals were at their lowest level in seven years when the pandemic closed sectors of the real estate market. Transactions valued at over $ 405 billion have been recorded across the country.

“Business crashed, bad assets piled up, pricing questioned, and many in the industry lost jobs,” researchers said.

The largest falls in investment were in hotels (68%) and retail (43%).

“The residential and industrial sectors led activity with real growth in business volume,” said Real Capital Analytics. “For the industrial sector, the December volume was at a record level in December.”