Real Estate Investment Will Outperform Stock Market, Livingston Predicts

ORLANDO-This is the year for commercial real estate investments to shine, predicts George D. Livingston, president, Orlando chapter, National Association of Office and Industrial Properties. Real estate will outperform stocks and bonds and continue to come on strong in 2003, he tells GlobeSt.com.

He bases his crystal ball declaration largely on new data passed along to members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. The 13-year-old Washington, DC industry group’s new survey shows foreign nationals from 17 countries plan to invest, over the next several years, more than the total $272 billion in assets they already own in the United States.

As their first choice, foreign investors will be putting the bulk of their money into multifamily properties, the AFIRE online-published survey shows. This marks the first major investment trend change for foreign nationals in 10 years. Multifamily usually is the No. 2 selection.