Factors Affecting Foreign Investor Choice in Types of U.S. Real Estate

Abstract

Using transaction level data, we present the first analysis of the way that foreign investors choose among different types of United States real estate. Our findings based on the conditional logit model analysis for the 1980-91 period are consistent with the hypothesis that foreign investors behave in a traditional profit maximizing, risk minimizing fashion. In choosing among investments in four major categories (apartment, office, retail and industrial) foreign investor choice is most sensitive to changes in capitalization rates, market activity and current rent levels.