Rising foreign investment flows into U.S. commercial real estate bode well for the CMBS sector, said Standard & Poor’s in a release.
Cross border investment in CRE was on track to surpass $5 billion in the third quarter, an amount that has not been seen since the boom of 2007. Canadians led among foreigners snapping up U.S. property, with Asian investors from China, Hong Kong, and South Korea following behind. The bulk of activity has focused on the usual suspects — Manhattan, for instance, received over 40% of cross-border capital so far during 2011.
S&P pointed out that about 12% of CMBS 2.0 deals and over 14% of overall conduit CMBS are backed by loans within the Metropolitan Statistical Area of New York, according to Trepp data.
