Seattle Has the Attention of International Real Estate Investors

Seattle ranks third among cities worldwide as a market where global investors would like to increase their real estate holdings, according to a new investor survey by AFIRE, an association representing some 200 institutional investors and investment managers across 24 nations.

The study also ranked Seattle among the top 10 cities globally as a real estate market offering investors an opportunity for capital appreciation. London and New York topped that list, while New York and Boston ranked ahead of Seattle in the list of cities where global investors most want to increase their real estate investment exposure.

Commercial real estate continues to perform well and is an important part of any long-term investment portfolio strategy, says Gunnar Branson, CEO of AFIRE. As global institutions hold assets over an extended time horizon, often in excess of 10 years, they play close attention to the factors driving growth in global cities as well as the risks, and prudently adjust their strategies accordingly.

Among the major risks affecting real estate cross-border real estate investment, according to the AFIRE survey, are currency fluctuations, rising interest rates and geopolitical turmoil. In addition, some 78 percent of survey respondents said the ongoing trade and tariff disputes involving the U.S. and other nations are expected to affect cross-border investments in 2019 although 14 percent expect 2019 to offer more attractive U.S. investment opportunities than 2018.

The industrial and multifamily property sectors are the most attractive to investors, with 80 percent of survey respondents seeking to increase industrial real estate exposure and 71 percent wanting to increase multifamily exposure.