“Our international strategy is in our DNA,” he said, noting that WP Carey deployed $3 billion of capital in Europe and in other non-European countries recently. Currently in the pipeline, Bond said the company is about to close on a deal with a British auto parts manufacturer with propertitary technology. While he could not disclose the specific terms of the deal, he said the auto parts maker is building a warehouse in Poland, and W.P. Carey is still “assessing the market and the prospects for that company.”

But overall, Bond described the deal as very much in-line with W.P. Carey’s desire to grow its portfolio in Europe and in other global locations. After W.P. Carey announced it would acquire Corporate Property Associates 15 and convert it to REIT status, following the merger, the company’s real estate portfolio will go from 14 million square feet to 43 million square feet, which will be leased to 135 companies worldwide. It will have a total equity market capitalization of approximately $3 billion, and a total market capitalization of $5 billion. Both are still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

“We think by taking the time to understand these new markets by having the people and resources in-house, including a board of directors that is 25% European at this point, we very much use local talent when we can get it," he said. "By focusing on this, we have a deeper pool of opportunities, and I think that helps us ride out these situations where the supply of capital temporarily outweighs the supply of opportunities.”

And aside from Europe, other REITs are finding their sweet spot in nice product, like healthcare, senior housing, medical office and luxury malls. Debra Cafaro, chairman and CEO of Ventas, a Chicago-based healthcare and senior housing REIT with a portfolio of 1,300 healthcare and senior housing properties throughout the United States, said that the REIT has completed eight acquisitions in the last eight years. But Ventas’ battle to the top of the healthcare pack wasn’t an easy one.

“You have to play the hand that you’re dealt, in some respect,” she said, noting that in late 2000, the REIT started with an equity cap of $100 million, but now it has ballooned to $16 or $17 billion. “We’ve done that principally through acquisitions. When we started this journey in 2000 and built our team, we had to look at the external environment, and what we saw at that time was a very fragmented, very large trillion-dollar healthcare/senior housing real estate market that was fragmented, but growing.”

Currently, Ventas made more than $10 billion in new acquisitions, including Chicago-based design and construction firm Lillibridge Healthcare Services; the $3.1-billion acquisition of private Atria Senior Living in October; and a $7.4-billion pending acquisition of Nationwide Health Properties, Cafaro said. In 2007, the company acquired the Sunrise Senior Living REIT—including 74 assisted living communities in the US—for $1.8 billion, one of its most well-known assets.

The secret to her success? Cafaro said, “the demand was there from demographics,” but the company still struggled to get the recognition it needed in the marketplace. “It wasn’t in the indices, and it really didn’t get the respect that I thought it deserved from the fundamental underpinnings of very positive demand fundamentals,” she said. “All of that coupled together shows that the external environment is a good acquisition environment. We can really do some good things here despite that external environment.”

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