Jacques Gordon, global head of research and strategy at LaSalle Investment Management, joined REIT.com for a video interview in Chicago at REITWeek 2013: NAREIT's Investor Forum.
Gordon offered his thoughts on the growing evolution and sophistication of the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.
"Each one is quite different," Gordon said. "They do share this characteristic of higher growth rates and massive urbanization. After that, it gets very different. Some of them have cities that have been around for 500 or a thousand years. You think about stability - well, they've got that. On the other hand, they don't have modern real estate and infrastructure in many parts of those countries. When one thinks about stability, there are aspects of each of those countries that are very stable. When it comes to commercial real estate markets, there are a lot of examples where things are moving much faster than we're used to in the United States. The cycle of supply and demand can be faster. So, there are a lot of contrasts out there."
Gordon also named a few countries that he views as being on the rise.
"There are lots of interesting countries that are frontier markets, and those are often in places like Africa," he said. "But when it comes to real estate investing, I would say it would be more like Turkey and Poland. Those are the up-and-comers in that part of the world. When it comes to Latin America, it would be Colombia. When it comes to Asia-Pacific, it would probably be a toss-up between Malaysia and Indonesia."
Gordon discussed the recent flurry of real estate investment activity in Asia.
"REITs in Asia are not one kind of REIT," he noted. "The common theme there is a lot of capital flowing in, a lot of development and a lot of asset price appreciation."
Gordon Says Emerging Real Estate Markets Rapidly Evolving
06/06/2013
| by
Allen Kenney