Q&A with Graham Stephens: international opportunities and challenges explored
Late in cycles we see a shift toward a preference for current yield or risk adjusted value which means one of two things: best in class assets or development opportunities
Members of our Global Capital team will attend the 13th Annual Global Market Property Conference hosted by Canadian Real Estate Forums on November 27, 2018, in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. We are also hosting the event’s networking luncheon as one of the event sponsors.
The conference theme is “International Opportunities and Challenges Explored: Elevated Knowledge for an Unpredictable Global Real Estate Market.” According to Canadian Real Estate Forums promotional materials, the event, which offers a full day of educational panels and speakers, aims to be an “intimate and informative opportunity for strategic information and networking on investment, capital flow and development in tier-one countries, growing economies and emerging markets around the world.”
Our delegation of cross border capital advisors will include Senior Managing Directors Jaime Fink and Chad Lavender and Managing Directors David Giancola, Graham Stephens and John Starkie.
Additionally, Mr. Stephens will moderate the closing roundtable, which will discuss key considerations when working with partners and co-investors and touch on things like LP rights, capital, governance, liquidity, fees and more. Below, Mr. Stevens answers some questions about the state of the global commercial real estate market.
Q&A with Graham Stephens
- What are international investors looking for right now? It’s difficult to generalize since global investors are a wide-ranging bunch, but, typically late in cycles, we see a shift toward a preference for current yield or risk adjusted value which means one of two things: best in class assets or development opportunities.
- Looking a little ahead, what do you anticipate 2019 will look like for global investment? Global investment in the United States will outpace 2017/2018 with the huge caveat that China will remain largely idle for a host of different reasons.
- What are the biggest obstacles to investing across borders and how do you overcome those? Depending on the source of the capital, it typically relates to making the investment in a tax-efficient structure or balancing current hedging costs that various groups need to satisfy (and subsequently the U.S. does not seem as attractive).
- What geographic areas/countries are investors drawn to currently and why? The traditional thought is that global investors like the large gateway cities in the U.S. because there’s liquidity, scale and they typically have a knowledge base of those markets from travel or personal experience. The interesting thing that continues to evolve is the sophistication of the global community and their willingness to venture into other high-growth markets for new/different challenges. Those markets include Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Denver and others.
