Foreign investors reduce U.S. share

As the “degree of difficulty” in finding attractive real estate investment opportunities increases, foreign investors are losing their appetite for U.S. real estate, according to a survey of the members of the Assn. of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

While overall spending will increase both globally and in the U.S., respondents said they would reduce the U.S. percentage of their total global real estate acquisitions from 71% in 2004 to 55% in 2005 and invest a greater percentage of their portfolios in an ever-widening global arena that includes Japan, Eastern Europe and Australia.

Almost 60% of respondents surveyed said it had become “very difficult” to find attractive real estate opportunities in the U.S., compared with 38% in 2003 and 32% in 2002.

The U.S. continued as the No. 1 country for stable and secure real estate investments.

For the third year, Washington, D.C., ranked as foreign investors’ top global city and the best city for investment in the U.S.