Private Buyers Aren't Scared
A new CBRE report says that while REITs remain skittish when it comes to acquisitions because of an uptick in interest rates, private investors are filling any void. CBRE chairman John O'Bryan (with CBRE's Ross Moore) calls it a "recalibration." Overall, commercial property investment is likely to hit $26B in 2013—one of the top three years in Canadian history. Office deal activity was lower, but land sales and retail hit their stride (the pending sale of Bayview Village in Toronto, rumoured to be to a group repping the British Columbia Investment Management, will push retail investment volume). As a sign of where we came from, John points to annual investment volumes in Canada in the mid-1990s—just $4B. REITs accounted for just 7.5% of activity in Q3.
