Investment Sales Reach $2B in Q4

WASHINGTON, DC-GVA Advantis has put out its findings for 2007 and as the market expected, results for Q4 were not pretty. Officially, investment sales–which came in at $2 billion–registered a slight increase from Q3, which tallied at $1.6 billion. However, the bulk of Q4 sales were due to Republic Property Trust’s $850-million acquisition by Malvern, PA-based Liberty Property Trust, according to Tonya Ginter, director of research and marketing for GVA Advantis and author of the report.

DC investment sales in Q1 registered $3.8 billion; in Q2 they were $6.1 billion–another jump due to a number of portfolio transactions during that time period. The culprit, of course, is the credit crunch, which has caused sellers to hold off on listing properties and buyers to be more aggressive in their pursuit of those few assets that are on the market. Financing as well has become more difficult, even for trophy properties–evidenced by CBRE Capital Markets’ difficulty in arranging a $50-million acquisition loan for the Sun Trust Mid Atlantic headquarters sale.