2018 Global Leaders in Real Estate Summit: Foreign Capital

Ken Weissenberg: People have been asking where is foreign investment coming from? It used to be the main driving force in people's minds, China, because there was a lot of signature deals from Chinese firms. The largest single investor in U.S. real estate from abroad is Canada, our nearest neighbor. Canada represents about 40% of investment in U.S. real estate and continues to do so. The mix from Asia is changing, somewhat, a little bit less from China, a little more from Korea and Japan. We're seeing strong investment interest from Australia, and Europe is coming back to the market pretty strong.
Andrea Himmel: Something like $57B has entered the market in new capital for bond funds. So, it looks like there's a lot of external capital entering. Private equity seems to be flush with capital, with somewhat onerous terms, but increasingly attractive. So it feels like there's no shortage of capital despite reductions in the foreign investments from China and Japan. Canada is investing at a very high rate in the U.S. and, in particular, in New York.

Lawrence Selevan: There's still capital coming from China and parts of Asia, Singapore. The Middle East I think is going to slow down with the geopolitical concerns right now. We still see a lot of European money and Canadian money coming, especially into New York.