Amazon’s pull-back and Albany’s political tumult aren’t enough to keep international real estate investors from seeing New York City as the safest place in the world to park their money.
A survey of about 200 real estate investors and investment managers from 24 countries identified New York as the “most stable and secure” city in the world to do business, and 39 percent said they want to “increase exposure there,” according to Crain’s.
About 20 percent of members of the D.C.-based A Fellowship for International Real Estate said they want to increase their exposure in Los Angeles. Five percent called Los Angeles the “most stable and secure” investment target, putting it just behind Paris, Boston and Singapore.
But roughly another third of respondents said they want to “decrease exposure” in New York, and 18 percent say they plan to cash out of investments in Chicago. Four percent said they likely will divest from real estate assets in Miami.
With a hard-line new Cook County Assessor and looming public pension obligations, Chicago is poised to see steep tax hikes on commercial properties that could scare away investors.
About 30 percent of investors said they predict the overall U.S. real estate landscape will become “less attractive” over time, while 15 percent said it would be “more attractive” and the rest predicted it would stay the same. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin