On the down side of the ledger, San Francisco dropped out of the global top 12 for investment, having occupied one of the top global positions for several years, with investment levels dropping 46% during the first three quarters of 2016 against the same period in 2015.

“In the past 10 years Boston has become a top destination for global investment due in part to its unique blend of a young and talented workforce, resources and academic and inspiring incubator community that drives innovation,” says JLL New England research manager Lisa Strope. “With some uncertainty in global markets in 2017, Boston will continue to attract foreign investment because of our solid economic foundation balanced by a diverse number of growing industries.”

The 45-page JLL report cites Boston as one of a number of emerging “New World Cities,” which it defines as mid-sized cities that are attractive to foreign investors due to a high tech concentration and attractive quality of life. JLL states that competitive pricing and lack of product in cities such as New York, London and Paris, is prompting foreign investors to look hard at opportunities in these New World Cities that include Boston, Dallas and Seattle in the U.S. as well as Stockholm, Brussels, Oslo, Vienna, and Dublin in Europe.

“New capital targeting real estate is only part of the story; experienced real estate investors are also allocating more money to direct real estate opportunities,” says David Green-Morgan, JLL Global Capital Markets research director. “As these groups tend to be well versed in allocating capital, they are able to direct large sums of money into the sector relatively quickly.”

Boston and Washington, DC were among the most active cities in the Americas behind New York City in terms of hotel property sale transactions in 2016. Several transactions in Boston and Washington, DC represented record sales value per key in their respective markets.

JLL predicts that global real estate investment will rebound from a projected $650 billion in activity last year to approximately $700 billion in 2017. The brokerage firm expects countries like China, Taiwan and Malaysia to continue to be very active. In fact, as of the third quarter of 2016, China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest cross-border purchaser of commercial real estate assets, the report states.

BOSTON—While the global political and economic climates remain cloudy at the moment, one thing is clear—Boston has transformed itself into a haven for foreign real estate investment capital.

Commercial brokerage firm JLL, in a newly released analysis on global real estate foreign investment, ranked the City of Boston as number six in the US and 13th globally for foreign real estate capital investment.

New York City was the global leader for the second year in a row with more than $33.1 billion in transactional volumes through the third quarter of 2016, which was nearly double the activity of second place London.

Los Angeles moved into third position worldwide (ahead of both Tokyo and Paris), with a 22% increase in foreign investment over the first nine months of 2016 to $15.7 billion, JLL reported. Washington and Chicago held their respective sixth and eight place positions despite modest falls in volumes in 2016.

On the down side of the ledger, San Francisco dropped out of the global top 12 for investment, having occupied one of the top global positions for several years, with investment levels dropping 46% during the first three quarters of 2016 against the same period in 2015.

“In the past 10 years Boston has become a top destination for global investment due in part to its unique blend of a young and talented workforce, resources and academic and inspiring incubator community that drives innovation,” says JLL New England research manager Lisa Strope. “With some uncertainty in global markets in 2017, Boston will continue to attract foreign investment because of our solid economic foundation balanced by a diverse number of growing industries.”

The 45-page JLL report cites Boston as one of a number of emerging “New World Cities,” which it defines as mid-sized cities that are attractive to foreign investors due to a high tech concentration and attractive quality of life. JLL states that competitive pricing and lack of product in cities such as New York, London and Paris, is prompting foreign investors to look hard at opportunities in these New World Cities that include Boston, Dallas and Seattle in the U.S. as well as Stockholm, Brussels, Oslo, Vienna, and Dublin in Europe.

“New capital targeting real estate is only part of the story; experienced real estate investors are also allocating more money to direct real estate opportunities,” says David Green-Morgan, JLL Global Capital Markets research director. “As these groups tend to be well versed in allocating capital, they are able to direct large sums of money into the sector relatively quickly.”

Boston and Washington, DC were among the most active cities in the Americas behind New York City in terms of hotel property sale transactions in 2016. Several transactions in Boston and Washington, DC represented record sales value per key in their respective markets.

JLL predicts that global real estate investment will rebound from a projected $650 billion in activity last year to approximately $700 billion in 2017. The brokerage firm expects countries like China, Taiwan and Malaysia to continue to be very active. In fact, as of the third quarter of 2016, China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest cross-border purchaser of commercial real estate assets, the report states.