Austin sizzles as country’s hottest commercial real estate market
The eyes of Texas – and the entire commercial real estate world – seem to be on Austin.
In a new survey by commercial real estate services company CBRE, commercial real estate investors rank Austin first among US metropolitan areas for investment prospects in 2021. Austin threw Los Angeles from its previous first place. Dallas-Fort Worth comes in second place, Los Angeles in third place.
Austin ranked 3rd in the 2020 CBRE poll and 11th in the 2019 version. Dallas-Fort Worth ranked second in 2019 and 2020, while LA ranked first in those two years.
“The Sun Belt markets in Austin, Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta were among the top performing metropolises in which the fewest jobs were lost in 2020,” according to the survey results from CBRE.
For the first time in the history of the CBRE survey, large investors (those who manage assets in excess of $ 50 billion) preferred smaller markets like Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth over mega-markets like New York City and San Francisco.
According to CBRE, markets like Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth will “see intense competition for high quality assets from all types of investors.”
At the same time, commercial real estate services company JLL names Austin one of the emerging cities for investment in the US. Dallas also belongs to this category; Denver; Charlotte, North Carolina; Miami; Nashville; and Raleigh, North Carolina. JLL cites population and employment growth, lower cost of living and shorter commute times than places like New York City and San Francisco as reasons for its optimistic outlook for “rising stars.”
Mike McDonald, vice chairman of commercial real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield, recently told the New York Times that Austin was “the hottest market in the country right now.”
“Millennials are moving to the sun belt and companies are following millennials. Investors follow the company, ”McDonald told The Times.
Ari Rastegar is the founder and CEO of Austin-based Rastegar Property Co., which owns apartments, offices and industrial properties in US markets such as Austin and Dallas.
Rastegar said Tesla’s latest announcement of a new factory outside Austin and Oracle’s recent decision to relocate its headquarters to Austin are based on previous investments by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and other companies in the region.
“These tech giants understand the abundant access to talent, the friendly business environment and the excellent standard of living that Austin offers. So it only makes sense that it is the hottest market in the country, ”says Rastegar.
It’s also no surprise that Dallas-Fort Worth ranks second on the CBRE poll, he says.
“While Austin has become one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the world, Dallas has long been the financial center of the state and the Sun Belt region and has benefited from the vast … educational facilities located throughout the subway,” says Rastegar.