(To read more on the debt and equity markets, click here.)

CHICAGO-US investors spent more than $12 billion on real estate outside the country in the first six months of 2005, topping the $9 billion flowing into the country from outside the borders, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. "We see a heightened level of real estate investment activity by domestic and international investors continuing through the end of the year and into next," says Noble Carpenter, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle's capital markets group.

The US investment in foreign real estate breaks down with $7.9 billion going into assets with another $4.5 billion in assets owned by US interests being sold. Meanwhile, $4.7 billion in foreign capital bought real estate in the US while another $4.4 billion in US assets were sold by foreign owners, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's report, "Global Real Estate Capital–The Search For Opportunity Intensifies."

"The prolonged low interest rate environment, improving property fundamentals, aging populations and increasing pension savings are driving an unprecedented weight of capital, which in turn is compressing yields in many international property markets," says London-based international capital group chief executive officer Tony Horrell.