Phil Bushey

Student housing was one of the highest performing sectors during the global economic crisis, according to a recent study from international real estate adviser Savills, and is quickly becoming a major asset class on the global stage.  Discussions While generated from short tenancies, purpose-built student housing generates stable rental income flows that are protected by the depth and consistency of demand. Increasing demand from foreign students, combined with low levels of competing supply in many world-class university cities, is opening up new opportunities for luxury purpose-built housing investment. Following the downturn, investment in the sector grew quickly, rising from $3.4 billion in 2007 to a record high of $7.2 billion in 2013, according to Savills. Though institutional investors have dominated cross-border investment to date, accounting for 57% of deals by amount, Savills expects private wealth to emerge where student housing is still a developing market. Globally, th...

 Middle Eastern investors are forecast to spend US$180 billion in commercial real estate markets outside of their own area over the next decade, according to the latest report from global property advisor CBRE Group, Inc.  Discounts The extraordinary mismatch between the lack of institutional real estate in domestic markets and the huge purchasing power concentrated in the area has resulted in a significant increase in Middle Eastern capital flows into global markets. Europe is the preferred destination, with the country receiving 80 percent of the $180 billion (roughly $145 billion) allocated over the next ten years. Nearly $85 billion would pour into the United Kingdom, with $60 billion going to continental Europe. The main target markets are France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Middle Eastern capital has poured into global real estate markets, with $45 billion invested between 2007 and 2013, seven times the amount estimated in its home market. There is clear evidence that Mid...

London's West End remained the world's most expensive office market, according to CBRE's new Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs report, but Asia continued to dominate the world's most expensive office locations, accounting for three of the top five markets.  Promotion The study also discovered that rents are increasing at the highest rate in the Americas, where real estate fundamentals are steadily improving. Overall, five of the ten markets with the fastest-growing occupancy costs were in the United States. Seattle (Suburban), San Francisco (Downtown), San Francisco (Peninsula), Houston (Suburban), and Houston (Peninsula) were the markets in question (Downtown). The "most expensive" list was topped by London West End's average occupancy costs of US$277 per sq. ft. per year. With total occupancy costs of US$242 per sq. ft., Hong Kong (Central) came in second. The top five cities were Beijing (Finance Street) (US$194 per sq. ft.), Beijing (Central Business...