Data bites: Four key takeaways from CushWake’s global cities report

We’re living in a global society, at least when it comes to real estate investment.

A new report by commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield ranking the top 25 cities for global investment shows just how much capital — $1.35 trillion — crossed global borders in the year ending in June. Predictably, cities such as New York and London benefitted from the lion’s share of those investment dollars.

But, looking past the obvious, the report contains a few gems of information that may be unfamiliar even to those well-versed in the global market. Read on for a closer look.

1. Los Angeles is gaining in the global real estate pecking order
Los Angeles ranks as the No. 2 city in the world by total investment volume (excluding land deals), with $40.82 billion in dollars spent in the year ending June. That’s a 9.8 percent uptick year-over-year. It was second only to New York, which saw $82.56 billion in investment. Investment in London actually dropped 31.2 percent to $39.38 billion, putting the British city in third place. Overall, the U.S. increased its hold on the list, with 16 of the top 25 cities for global investment located in North America.

2. Much of the growth in global sales volume can be attributed to land deals in China
The global investment market remained mostly stable over the year ending in June, with sales volume inching up by just 0.5 percent to $1.35 trillion. Those numbers doesn’t necessarily indicate stability in the U.S., however, since much of that growth can be attributed to Asia, where investors ate up developable land deals in particular. When land deals are excluded from the data, it is clear that sales volume actually dipped globally. It dropped by 5.7 percent to $919.7 billion, according to the report.

3. The U.S. is still top dog in outgoing investment
The top five countries countries by outgoing global investment were the U.S. ($51B), China ($16.8B), Singapore ($16.3B), Canada ($14.7B) and Qatar ($10.3B.) Other key investors included South Korea and Hong Kong, which upped their investment levels by 66 percent and 76 percent respectively in the year ending in June, according to the report.

4. Africa is the fastest growing region for cross-border investment
The region with the fastest growing stream of international investment last year was actually Africa, which upped its investment levels by a whopping 135 percent thanks to increased demand from African buyers. All in all, the cross border share of the global market (excluding developable land), rose to 28.3 percent of total transactions, from 27.7 percent a year prior.