CRE gains still to be had for careful investors

Real estate investors in Florida and around the country may have reason to be concerned about the current state of the commercial property market. Both the Federal Reserve and Bloomberg have issued warnings recently about speculative price increases and market vulnerabilities, and Morgan Stanley has predicted that values will remain flat for the remainder of 2016. However, savvy investors who have heard such words of caution in the past may be skeptical based on the continued flow of money into American real estate from both domestic and foreign sources that has been spurred by persistently low interest rates.

While a wall of maturing debt and economic concerns in Asia may rein in the American commercial property market in the short term, a predicted sharp increase in the demand for rental housing units and a robust office space market could still provide healthy returns for careful investors. Healthcare space is in particularly high demand..

The demand for medical offices is expected to become even more intense in the coming years as baby boomers continue to retire in ever greater numbers. The amount of foreign capital flowing into the U.S. commercial real estate market also shows few signs of slowing down. Many naysayers predicted that economic volatility in China would negatively impact property investment in the United States, but Chinese investors committed more money to American commercial property transactions during the first six months of 2016 than they did in the whole of 2015.

Real estate attorneys will likely have experienced several peaks and troughs in the commercial property market, and they may encourage their clients to take a more long-term and strategic view of their investments. Attorneys could also help their clients to avoid potential pitfalls by anticipating challenges such as stricter lending regulations.