Seattle outdraws Manhattan as foreign investors bet on the office market rebounding
For the first time since the financial crash, Manhattan, NY slipped from its ranking as the top spot for foreign investment in American commercial real estate. Seattle, WA jumped to No. 1. As reported in Seattle Times recently - investors from other countries spent about $2.5 billion on commercial real estate in Seattle over the last four quarters.
Per Jim Costello, senior vice president at Real Capital Analytics, "where Seattle stands out stronger than Manhattan is some of those safe assets...meaning office assets tied to tech tenants.” Tech tenants offered “more safety” for investors than the financial sector, he also pointed out.
The Seattle area has seen multiple high-dollar office tower sales in 2020, even as the office market nationally has sagged amid uncertainty about whether office workers will return to their cubicles.
Real estate firm Kidder Matthews noted that "for investors, suburban land for housing developments and sites near transit (transit-oriented development) are among the properties 'top on their shopping list'“. Meanwhile buyers are also interested in the Eastside - recently another Facebook-leased Spring District building, Block 24, sold for about $200 million to the Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management.
You can read the full report from Seattle Times here.
