The top 10 metro areas by year-over-year investment volume growth were Seattle (114.4%), Portland (82.9%), Las Vegas (69.6%), Salt Lake City (67.1%), Denver (56.7%), South Florida (54.3%), San Francisco Bay Area (53.8%), Charlotte (47.6%), Orlando (44.6%), and San Diego (41.8%).
The RCA Commercial Property Price Index was up overall 1% year-over-year. By property type, it was office (-1%), industrial (+2%), retail (+3%), multifamily (-1%), and hotel (-9%).
The biggest group of buyers was private investors. They accounted for $51 billion, or 60%, of the quarter’s transactions. The amount invested increased by 19.1% year over year and made up 55.3% of the total last quarter. The second largest group by amounts invested was institutional investors at $20 billion, or roughly 22.1% of the volume. Institutional investors showed a 106.7% year-over-year increase. Both were net buyers.
The other groups were net sellers. REITs and public companies invested $4.8 billion; that was 5.4% of the total but also a 69% drop from Q1 2024. Cross-border investors put in $4.3 billion, which was 4.9% of all the investment. Then there was another $8.7 billion spread across “other” investor types that made up 9.8% of the total.
AFIRE’s quarterly survey of its members showed a sharp drop in global confidence in U.S. CRE. However, property markets here still had the perception of being a safe investment environment, or at least they did as of March 2025. CBRE listed the top origin countries in cross-border investment for the trailing four quarters ending in Q1 2025: Canada ($7.3 billion), Norway ($2.6 billion), U.K. ($2.3 billion), Japan ($2.1 billion), German ($1.3 billion), Bahrain ($1.1 billion), Singapore ($0.9 billion), Israel ($0.7 billion), Switzerland ($0.7 billion), and the Netherlands ($0.3 billion).