In the year leading up to June 2015, global commercial property
investment increased by 16 per cent overall, and now stands at its
highest level since 2008, and is now only 13 per cent below the
pre-crisis peak.

The data comes from the new annual survey report from Cushman
& Wakefield, and shows that the top 25 gateway cities saw the
market share rise from 51 per cent to 53 per cent, with New York
currently at the top and North America the fastest growing target
for foreign investors.

The current industry forecast is for global volumes to increase
by 17 per cent leading up to mid-year 2016, which will mean a new
record high of $1.1 trillion, again lead by growth in both North
America and Europe.

Interestingly, despite the growth the market is far from
uniform, and results across different regions vary quite
substantially.  Risk tolerances have loosened due to the
overall economic recovery in the last two years, but the flow has
still been towards the most liquid and accessible markets.

New York and London have both increased their market share as a
result of foreign investment, with the latter topping the list in
terms of foreign buyers.  Tokyo, Los Angeles and San Francisco
made up the rest of the top five.

David Hutchings, head of EMEA Investment Strategy at Cushman
& Wakefield, said:

'Despite the strong overall growth and the major gateway cities
remaining largely unmoved, change is more evident at regional
levels,

'Europe is still a magnet for capital from all regions but North
America has actually been the fastest growing target for foreign
capital, a fact reflected in the dominance of US cities in this
year's report,'

14 of the top 25 cities are in the US, with investment in the US
cities growing by 32 per cent compared to an average of around 7
per cent in the other countries on the list.

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