Steve Wagner Steve Wagner

Foreign investors are increasing industrial investment activity in Southern California. According to research from JLL, industrial purchases have accounted for 52% of all foreign investment in Orange County in the last 24-month period. Foreign investors have acquired 5.4 million square feet of industrial property in the market. The trend is directly linked to the growth of ecommerce this cycle, which has increased industrial appetite for both domestic and foreign capital sources.

“Over the last 10 years industrial property has become an increasingly popular investment class throughout the United States, and targeted both by domestic and foreign capital as the industry becomes more institutionalized,” Steve Wagner, managing director at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. “As consumer habits change, and warehouses in densely populated areas become more valuable to corporate America's business model, markets like Southern California continue to lead.  Foreign investors are attracted to the United States, and particularly to Southern California, due to the strong economy and long-term growth prospects. Simply put, Southern California industrial is a much better alternative to many other investment opportunities foreign capital may consider.”

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.