CHICAGO—As reported yesterday, JLL has just finished its report Commercial Real Estate Investment: 2015 and Beyond, and the data contained a few surprises according to Sean Coghlan, the capital markets research lead for JLL.

"We did not anticipate that the industrial sector's recovery would be as strong or as quick as it was," he tells GlobeSt.com. By the end of the third quarter, for example, the year-to-date sales volume hit $43.2 billion, 53.9% higher than last year at this time, ensuring that the 2015 total will represent a sixth year of consecutive growth.

Perhaps even more significantly, a massive amount of foreign capital recently surged into the industrial market. The sector has attracted $11.5 billion in foreign capital so far, and Coghlan adds that JLL believes an additional $7.5 billion in deals have a good chance of closing by the end of the year. If that happens, industrial will outstrip the office sector in attracting inbound capital. This would be a sea change from past years, when the amounts brought in by industrial deals was only a fraction of what offices attracted.