Not surprisingly, the survey revealed a marked preference for US gateway cities, although Toronto moved up into eighth place, tied with Boston, while Sao Paulo was ranked #12. Los Angeles maintained its position as the most preferred metro area for investment in '17. Dallas/ Ft. Worth overtook New York City for the second rank this year's survey, pushing the largest US city into third place. Washington, DC moved up the ranks from eighth to the fourth most preferred metro for investment in '17. Atlanta, Seattle and Houston are also viewed as attractive markets for investment.

Industrial is top asset class in this year's survey, bumping multifamily out of the top spot by a margin of 38% to 28%. Among investment strategies, value-add came out best with 39% of respondents rating it highest. Core product was relegated to third place with good non-core assets taking second; CBRE says the diminished appeal of core investments was due to a combination of low cap rates, weakening property fundamentals and the search for higher yielding assets.

Although 83% of survey respondents intend to maintain or increase their investment levels compared to 2016, “they also intend to retreat on the risk curve, becoming more conservative in strategy and risk appetite,” says Brian McAuliffe, president, institutional properties, capital markets at CBRE. “This is counterbalanced by the search for yield.”

The survey found that the majority of investors surveyed are focused on real estate in the Americas and don't intend to make asset purchases in other regions of the world. Some 74% rate North America highest, with only Europe registering a double-digit response (14%) as the most attractive global region for real estate investment. Seven percent rate Asia Pacific above all other regions, and 5% prefer to invest in Latin America. CBRE conducted the survey between January and February of this year.

LOS ANGELES—With Europeans leading the way, 67% of investors in Americas commercial real estate intend to be net buyers this year. That's among the key findings of the CBRE Americas Investor Intentions Survey 2017, issued Tuesday.

Although they may comprise a comparatively small percentage of investors overall, institutions make up for it in sheer scale. Fifty-four percent of institutions—including insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds—intend to deploy more than $1 billion of capital in '17, CBRE says. That includes 21% that plan to spend between $2 billion and $5 billion in the Americas; 19% that plan to deploy between $1 billion and $2 billion; and 14% that intend to invest more than $5 billion.

SWFs in particular are under-allocated to commercial real estate, which comprises just 3% of assets under management among the top 20 sovereign funds. That under-representation, says CBRE, “accounts for expected higher levels of capital deployment.”

Within the Americas region—and globally, in fact—the US remains the prime destination for investment. During a media briefing Tuesday at CBRE offices in Midtown Manhattan, Revathi Greenwood, the firm's Americas head of investment research, cited “the three Rs”: return, risk and resilience. Although Japanese real estate actually fared slightly better in terms of returns during 2016, US CRE's risk profile and the resilience seen both in the national economy and on a market-by-market basis carried the day.

Not surprisingly, the survey revealed a marked preference for US gateway cities, although Toronto moved up into eighth place, tied with Boston, while Sao Paulo was ranked #12. Los Angeles maintained its position as the most preferred metro area for investment in '17. Dallas/ Ft. Worth overtook New York City for the second rank this year's survey, pushing the largest US city into third place. Washington, DC moved up the ranks from eighth to the fourth most preferred metro for investment in '17. Atlanta, Seattle and Houston are also viewed as attractive markets for investment.

Industrial is top asset class in this year's survey, bumping multifamily out of the top spot by a margin of 38% to 28%. Among investment strategies, value-add came out best with 39% of respondents rating it highest. Core product was relegated to third place with good non-core assets taking second; CBRE says the diminished appeal of core investments was due to a combination of low cap rates, weakening property fundamentals and the search for higher yielding assets.

Although 83% of survey respondents intend to maintain or increase their investment levels compared to 2016, “they also intend to retreat on the risk curve, becoming more conservative in strategy and risk appetite,” says Brian McAuliffe, president, institutional properties, capital markets at CBRE. “This is counterbalanced by the search for yield.”

The survey found that the majority of investors surveyed are focused on real estate in the Americas and don't intend to make asset purchases in other regions of the world. Some 74% rate North America highest, with only Europe registering a double-digit response (14%) as the most attractive global region for real estate investment. Seven percent rate Asia Pacific above all other regions, and 5% prefer to invest in Latin America. CBRE conducted the survey between January and February of this year.