Us commercial property investment jumps 30pc

Photo: Michael Tapp

The USA is now leading global commercial real estate investment, according to JLL, following a 30 per cent rise in sales volumes.

Sales jumped in the second quarter of 2015, taking full year global forecasts to US$750-760 billion.

Despite the debt crisis in Greece and volatility in China’s equity markets, Q2 2015 prelim data from JLL shows global transaction volumes in the second quarter of the year totalled US$161 billion, unchanged from the same period a year ago.

The Americas, as a whole, posted the best second-quarter performance since 2007, at US$79 billion, as the US economy recovers while Russia shows signs of renewed optimism with the strongest level of activity seen in five quarters.

In Asia Pacific, lower transactions in Japan and Australia – the region’s biggest markets – pulled volumes down. In EMEA, transaction volumes were up 11 percent, measured in local currencies.

"We can expect the recent decline in global interest rates to support transactional activity for the remainder of 2015," says David Green-Morgan, global capital markets research director at JLL. "As a result, we believe global volumes for the full year will reach US$750-760 billion, a 5 percent rise on 2014 transactional activity."

Transactional volume in the Americas climbed 18 percent both on a year-on-year basis and a year-to-date basis, supported by growth in the U.S. In Canada, volumes are 20 percent down year-to-date.

Southern Europe posted a 47 percent growth in the first six months. The UK, France and Germany were up 15 percent each in the same period while Nordic investment was up 38 percent.