Despite global factors including the Greek debt crisis and volatility in China’s equity markets, global commercial real estate transaction volumes during the second quarter of the year totaled US$ 161 billion, unchanged from the same period a year ago. This is according to preliminary data from real estate firm JLL.
The United States lead global commercial real estate investments after posting a 30 percent rise in transaction volumes, as full year global forecasts hit up to US$ 760 billion. The Americas, as a whole, posted the best second-quarter performance since 2007 as the U.S. economy recovers, while Russia shows signs of renewed optimism with the strongest level of activity seen in five quarters.
In contrast, the Asia-Pacific region saw lower transactions in Japan and Australia – the region’s biggest markets. In the EMEA region overall transaction volumes were up 11 percent measured in local currencies.
Transactional volumes however fell 19 percent in U.S. Dollar terms as the region was affected by the strength of the greenback, although Hong Kong (pictured) was a standout with volumes up 88 percent. This was despite the ongoing political turmoil.
David Green-Morgan, Global Capital Markets Research Director at JLL, said: “We can expect the recent decline in global interest rates to support transactional activity for the remainder of 2015. As a result, we believe global volumes for the full year will reach US$750-760 billion, a five percent rise on 2014 transactional activity.”
This story was written by Andrew Batt, Group Editor of Dot Property Group. Send your news, views, press releases and comments to him at [email protected].
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