U.S. Is Most Attractive Country to Global Real Estate Investors

• January 30th 2009

by Will Smith

Based on a recent survey of its membership, the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) has found that global investors point to the U.S. as having the most enticing real estate investment potential of any country in the world. Specifically, 37 percent of those surveyed cited the U.S. as having “the best opportunity for capital appreciation.” Brazil was a distant second with 16 percent.

Over half of the AFIRE membership believe the U.S. provides “the most stable and secure real estate investments” in the world right now. The number two slot in that category is shared by Germany and Switzerland. Of the top ten most attractive cities for global real estate investors, five were in the U.S. (DC, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston). In comparison, last year five of the top ten cities were in Asia.

The AFIRE findings are good news for a number of reasons. A few of those reasons are highlighted below:

• The rankings indicate that savvy international investors believe U.S. property values are near bottom and that a rebound might not be too far off. Less than 20 percent of survey respondents consider it “very difficult” to find attractive U.S. investment opportunities. In 2004, that number was 59.4 percent.
• There will likely be an infusion of foreign capital into the U.S. property market, which could stabilize falling housing prices and strengthen the dollar.
• Despite the economic turmoil, the U.S. is still perceived as one of the safest, most robust markets in which to invest.

“Our investor members have expressed a growing confidence and interest in U.S. real estate,” AFIRE CEO James A. Fetgatter was quoted in the press release. “Their investment plans for 2009 for the U.S. resemble the flight to quality that is creating the demand for U.S. Treasuries.”

In other positive news, real estate markets around the world may be poised to benefit from an uptick in investment, as the survey found that global real estate investors plan to increase their investment activity by 40 percent in 2009 versus 2008.

See the AFIRE announcement for more details, plus this page which highlights other findings from the survey.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/u.s._is_most_attractive_country_to_global_real_estate_investors/502.