CRE Investment Volume Climbed 10% in Q2 – Commercial Property Executive

  • Top markets for investment volume. Images courtesy of CBRE
  • Investment volume by sector, Q2 2022 vs. Q2 2021
  • While portfolio transaction volume increased 41 percent, entity-level transactions fell by 17 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, largely due to higher borrowing costs. The Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March, the first rate hike since the pandemic began—with a 25-basis-point increase, followed by a 50-basis-point increase in May and the three-quarter percentage point increase in June, the largest since 1994.

    On a trailing four-quarter basis, New York was the top market, with $67 billion, up a strong 104.3 percent year-over-year. Los Angeles followed with total investment volume of $65 billion, up 61 percent. Rounding out the top 5 were Dallas-Fort Worth, at $50 billion, for an increase of 91.9 percent; Atlanta, at $40 billion, up 88.3 percent; and the San Francisco Bay Area, with just under $40 billion in volume, up 44.4 percent year-over-year.

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    Houston had the biggest year-over-year increase in trailing four-quarter volume, at 150 percent, with about $29 billion in total investment volume. Other markets with big year-over-year increases in trailing four-quarter volume were: Orlando, Fla., $15.4 billion, up 136.8 percent; Las Vegas, Nev., $11 billion, up 132.5 percent; South Florida, $34 billion, up 117.3 percent; and Nashville, Tenn., with $12.1 billion in total investments, up 116 percent.

    Prices, cross-border investment up

    Institutional investors were net buyers last quarter, while private investors, REIT and cross-border investors were net sellers, according to the CBRE report. Private investors accounted for $102 billion, or 61 percent of the total. It was a 19.3 percent increase from the private investors’ volume of $85.4 billion during the same quarter last year. Institutional investors had a total investment volume of $39.9 billion in the second quarter, down 7.9 percent from $43.3 billion in 2021. REITs and public companies clocked in at $9.2 billion, a 5 percent decrease from $9.7 billion a year earlier.

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    Inbound cross-border investment volume increased by 16 percent year-over-year, to $6.5 billion, but was down by 9 percent from the first quarter of the year due to the strengthening of the US dollar. Multifamily was the leading sector for inbound cross-border investment, at $3 billion, followed by industrial with $2 billion and office at $1 billion.

    Canada was the top country for US inbound cross-border investment, with $24 billion in investments. Singapore followed, with $14 billion, and South Korea at $5 billion.

    Prices were up across the board in the second quarter, the report showed. The RCA Commercial Property Price Index increased by 18.5 percent year-over-year. The industrial sector marked the biggest increase, up 27 percent year-over-year, followed by multifamily, with a 24.3 percent increase. Office property prices rose 10 percent for the second quarter year-over-year.

    Read the full CBRE report.