CBRE Group has released ‘Global Gateway Cities’ – a comprehensive guide for investors seeking to acquire real estate assets in the world’s great cities.
The report focuses on the prime office and prime retail locations of 20 global gateway cities, providing perspective on key variables such as economic trends; occupier trends; supply trends; rent trends; yield trends; and investment activity, so that investors can quickly and easily understand pricing and market conditions.
Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. are featured in the report as key targets for international investors. These cities were selected based on size, transport infrastructure, corporate presence, real estate investment flows and several other indicators of importance.
“Global gateway cities offer many benefits to real estate investors. Their attractiveness to people and businesses means that space demand in commercial real estate markets increases steadily over the long-term, underpinning rental growth. These cities are highly liquid markets, where real estate investments can be readily bought and sold. Real estate in the global gateways provides capital protection and, in this era of low bond rates, a good income return. Lot sizes vary from small to huge, so large sums of capital can be deployed if necessary,” said Chris Ludeman, Global President, CBRE Capital Markets.
“We live in an age of cities. In emerging markets, they are hubs of explosive growth in production and distribution facilities. In the developed world, where the service sector drives economic activity, cities have reinvented themselves as vibrant live-work-play destinations. Millennials continue to flock to cities to work in the highly dynamic sectors of tech, fashion and high finance,” said Richard Barkham, Global Chief Economist, CBRE.
“The great gateway cities are world-class transport hubs; they are networked into the global economy via their ports and airports, and to their hinterlands via the road and rail network. Their Central Business Districts, with extensive stock of modern offices, host national and regional corporate headquarters and the legal, accountancy and consulting services these require. These cities have highly diversified economies with many sectors and sub-sectors, which, alongside their entrepreneurialism, makes them highly resilient to the ebb and flow of economic events,” Barkham added.