Thursday, February 21, 2008

Global Property sales top $1 trln in 2007: report

New York, (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - Real Capital Analytics (RCA), an independent research firm focusing on the capital markets for commercial real estate, today announced that worldwide acquisitions of commercial property surpassed the $1 trillion mark in 2007.

The landmark figure is reported in the inaugural issue of Global Capital Trends, RCA's global capital investment report.

"The size of the commercial property marketplace is much larger than previous estimates," said Robert M. White, founder and president of RCA. "Our research has documented more than $1 trillion of significant property sales in 2007 across 75 countries on five continents. Considering our research only includes sales greater than $10 million, the total size of the marketplace may be closer $1.5 trillion."

The report also identifies 114 cities that recorded more than $1 billion of commercial property sales. Other findings in the first issue of Global Capital Trends include:
-- Of the 114 cities that recorded more than $1 billion of commercial property sales, 48 are in North America, 35 are in Europe and 21 are in Asia.
-- Office space was the most active property type, representing 32 percent of total sales, or $434 billion. Nearly 1.2 billion square feet (112 million square meters) of property changed hands last year, equivalent to all of London, Tokyo and New York City combined.
-- Commercial property sales volumes in Asia could surpass those in either Europe or the Americas in 2008.
-- The risk premium for property ranges from 20 to 350 bps. U.K. and Hong Kong were considered the least risky investment locations with capitalization rates averaging just above comparable government bonds in 2007.
-- Half of all land acquired by developers around the world last year was located in China with $50 billion in acquisitions, double the U.S., the next most active country.
-- Corporate users capitalized on investor demand for property globally with $88 billion worth of asset sales including $56 billion of sale-leaseback transactions, a form of corporate finance.

"Some of the findings of this report are fascinating and the industry will really benefit from this new level of transparency," said Steve Williams, an international property consultant and former president of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The sales tracked in Global Capital Trends include office, industrial, retail, apartment and hotel properties as well as developable land for them. RCA also notes the availability and reliability of property sales information varies greatly by country and even within certain countries.

RCA is the first independent research firm to report on the global property markets. The data is based on RCA's global transactional database which is available to subscribers. RCA's data is widely used throughout the capital markets in the U.S. and is now available globally.

A copy of the inaugural issue of Global Capital Trends is available at www.rcanalytics.com

Press Contact: Dan Fasulo at 212-387-7103 or dfasulo@rcanalytics.com

About Real Capital Analytics, Inc.

Real Capital Analytics, Inc. (RCA) is an independent research firm focused exclusively on the capital investment markets for commercial real estate. RCA offers the most in-depth, comprehensive and current information of transactional activity and capital flows in the industry.

Formed in 2000, RCA has offices in New York City, San Jose, Calif., and The Hague. In addition to collecting transactional information for property sales and financings, RCA interprets data including capitalization rates, market trends, pricing and sales volume. The firm publishes a series of capital trend reports and offers an online service that provides near real-time, global transactional market information.

For more information, visit: http://www.rcanalytics.com

SOURCE: Real Capital Analytics, Inc.
CONTACT: Dan Fasulo of Real Capital Analytics, Inc.,
+1-212-387-7103,
dfasulo@rcanalytics.com
Web site: http://www.rcanalytics.com

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