Appetite for RE Assets is Strongest in Years

CHICAGO—As reported in GlobeSt.com, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced plans this week to sell as much as $3 billion of its real estate investment holdings. It was just the latest of several major owners that have recently put up vast portfolios for sale. And Erik Foster, principal and practice leader of Avison Young’s Chicago-based industrial capital markets team, tells GlobeSt.com that we’ll soon see even more portfolios like this hit the market.

“Now is the perfect time for major players to divest themselves of non-core assets that are incompatible with their companies’ strategies,” he says. Buyers have become very aggressive and their current “appetite for assets is the strongest it’s been since the recession. So if you’re going to maximize your value, now is the time.”