Portfolios of stable industrial properties have emerged as a top investment class for foreign capital, competing with trophy office buildings for attention from billion-dollar funds.
According to a recent report from commercial real estate services firm JLL, offshore capital has been the biggest participant in the market for U.S. industrial properties in 2015, accounting for more than $11.5 billion in transactions by the end of the third quarter. Global investors, including sovereign wealth funds, institutional advisors and insurance companies, have clamored since 2013 to pick up billion-dollar portfolios. A prime example is Singapore-based Global Logistics Properties, which has spent about $12.7 billion in the past 24 months to buy up U.S.-based portfolios gathered by Industrial Income Trust and IndCor, making GLP the second largest owner of U.S. industrial properties after ProLogis.
Craig Meyer, president of JLL’s Americas industrial division, says forming the portfolios was hard work, but resulted in significant rewards, made available by a sector that’s seen 23 quarters of positive space absorption, low vacancy and disciplined development.
To read the complete article written by Robert Carr for National Investor magazine,
click here December 19, 2015
