Overseas investment in Seattle-area real estate rebounds sharply
Last year, Seattle for the first time cracked a top 10 list of the world's cities that were most appealing to foreign real estate investors.
That appeal was real. Cross-border investment jumped 50 percent in 2018 to $1.5 billion, according to report by commercial real estate services company JLL. Foreign investment in office, multifamily, industrial and retail properties had peaked at $2.2 billion in 2015 and fell to $1 billion in 2017.
Among some of last year's deals was the $145 million acquisition of the Motif Seattle hotel by a Hong Kong company. A Canada-based company paid $145 million for an 11-acre development site in Bellevue, while another Canadian company paid nearly $79 million for a development site in Seattle's Denny Triangle neighborhood.
From the end of 2012 to 2018, cross-border investment in the Seattle area has increased fivefold, according to the JLL report. The largest deal was the $711 million sale of Columbia Center to a Hong Kong-based company in 2015. During that period, capital from Asia accounted for nearly half the $7.7 billion in investments, with most of the rest roughly split between the Americas and Europe.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2019/01/02/overseas-real-estate-investment-rebounds-jll.html?ana=e_du_prem&s=article_du&ed=2019-01-05&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1546714785&j=85870001
Hope this doesn't end up like Vancouver BC. Real estate is expensive in this area as it is.
