NEW YORK CITY—South Korean capital remains one of the most sought after sources of funding for US commercial real estate. Although cross-border real estate investments have been coming from Korea for the last 25 years, attorneys at Mayer Brown say there has been “off the charts activity” in the last two or three years. The law firm handled 24 Korean real estate financing deals in 2017, and has 11 deals already underway this year.
“Last year, Korean capital focused on debt deals, senior loan, B-note and mezzanine deals, and selective equity deals,” Mayer Brown real estate partner Kwon Lee tells GlobeSt.com. “Such trends will continue in 2018 according to industry experts we spoke with.”
Robert G. Koen, who heads Mayer Brown's New York real estate practice, answers one question he constantly gets asked about Korean investors. “In certain debt areas, like mezzanine financing, timing and execution have been extremely good. They typically don't do development but that might change.”
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
