DLA Piper, a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries, recently released its Global Real Estate Annual State of the Market Survey that examines the sentiment and predictions of real estate leaders across the U.S. and internationally.
DLA Piper concludes that following the longest economic expansion in the U.S., CRE executives hold a cautiously optimistic outlook as a potential recession looms on the horizon and the promise of new technology and strong investments persist.
While many assumed the first half of 2019 would be a slow year for CRE, the 2019-2020 Global Investment Atlas from Cushman & Wakefield forecasts that 2019 volumes will match 2018 results.
A few key findings:
- Denver was cited as the second top U.S. city for CRE investment in the coming year. Boston, which ranked sixth in the prior survey, overtook Chicago as the top U.S. city for investment
- A large majority (85 percent) of respondents predict e-commerce will have the most impact on the CRE market, followed by logistics and warehousing (78 percent).
- Among those who are bearish, 37 percent cite domestic and/or international political uncertainty to be the reason for their pessimism, a 7 percent uptick from the last survey, and another 30 percent cite the inevitable end (or nearing end) of the current economic cycle.
- At 45 percent, private equity is viewed as the most likely equity to be invested in 2020, followed by pension funds/endowments at 22 percent.
- Almost half (45 percent) agree that investment in Opportunity Zones will increase substantially in the next 12 months.
- While 55 percent of respondents in the State of the Market Survey said that PropTech will not be impactful in the upcoming year, respondents may feel differently in the coming years as leaders become more familiar.
View the full report here
