|
|
|
|
|
Sherrie Faber
DRE #01272361
First
California Realty, Inc.
Sausalito,
CA 94965
Direct:
(415) 339-9200
Fax:
(415) 331-1178
eMail:
First California Realty
|
| |
|
|
Compiled from the Wall Street Journal Online, International Herald Tribune, and other sources
During the first three quarters of 2005, Australians purchased $6.8 billion of American office buildings, shopping centers and other commercial properties, according to Real Capital Analytics.
During that period, Australians accounted for 37% of the international capital that poured into U.S. real estate, the New York research firm says.
Australians topped German investors who invested $3.5 billion over the same period, according to Real Capital.
Investments in the United States increased since 2002, when Australia required companies to pay the equivalent of 9 percent of employee salaries into retirement accounts. Australians have spent twice as much as Middle Eastern investors on U.S. real estate since 2005, and almost three times more than Germans.
The Australian desire for U.S. real estate remains strong.
The U.S. commercial real-estate market has been setting records for the high prices that buildings are commanding, the relatively low returns that buyers are accepting and the amounts banks are lending. In 2007, Australian investors
widened their lead as the biggest international buyers of U.S. real estate. This year, Australians purchased $7.7 billion of U.S. real estate ($2.2 billion more than they acquired during all of 2006), according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics, a provider of data on the U.S. property market. Germans spent $2 billion in the same period and Middle East buyers $3.9 billion.
Many Australian investors acknowledge that they are buying into a pricey market but say these deals offer less risk and potentially higher returns than real estate in Asia or Europe.
Australians are avoiding trophy properties such as New York's Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center, sticking to top-quality but lower-profile buildings. "Yes, their average prices are 10% higher than the market average," says Real Capital's president, Robert White. "But the Australians are buying properties that are better than average in quality."
Estimates are that the Australian pension-fund total will rise to $1.5 trillion by 2012.
Australians long have invested in real estate and like the U.S. market because its laws and structure resemble its own, in particular the real-estate investment trusts that helped put billions of dollars of properties into the hands of publicly traded companies. Australian investors add that the U.S. has the most favorable tax treatment.
Also driving the Australian influx are successes by some players and the relative shortage of properties -- and especially bargain-priced properties -- on the market in Australia.
Because of their limited real estate opportunities in Australia the US real estate industry's current trends has attracted overseas investors by providing them with returns according to their investments and needs.
In addition to investors from Australia, it seems that the US will remain a top choice for foreign investors because of the safety and security here.
|
|
|
|
|
