The commercial real estate investment market has stepped firmly into recovery mode, according to Jones Lang LaSalle‘s Fall 2010 Investor Sentiment survey. The survey included responses from more than 200 industry participants including nationwide property owners, banks, agencies, development firms, academics, and professional services firm/consultants.
When Jones Lang LaSalle conducted its investor sentiment analysis in spring 2010, investors felt a marked turnaround from the uncertainty that had prevailed in the market for the past two years. Then, 74 percent of respondents indicated an interest in increasing their overall investment activities in 2010 compared with 2009. Now, just six months later, the current survey confirms an even higher percentage, 85 percent, of investors plan to increase their investment in commercial real estate in the next 12 months. Of those optimistic investors, 30 percent expect to increase their investment by up to 30 percent and an additional 18 percent predict an uptick in volumes up to 20 percent. Only 15 percent expected to pull back in investment in the next 12 months. Comparatively, in 2009, the survey results indicated 30 percent predicting a drop in investment spending by up to 30 percent.
Jones Lang LaSalle conducts its Investor Sentiment survey twice a year in both the spring and fall, in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute’s national conferences. This year, Jones Lang LaSalle partnered with the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association to include 170 respondents from the university’s alumni, as well as the findings from a number of ULI Fall Meeting attendees and 30 senior executives who gathered in Pinehurst, North Carolina, in September to attend Jones Lang LaSalle’s Annual Investor Sentiment Forum. Results from all three surveys have been merged to provide the largest data set of current industry sentiment.
