CB Richard Ellis's Global Market Overview for June 2010---A Bumpy Road to Recovery

LOS ANGELES, CA--CB Richard Ellis's Global Market View for June 2010 sees a bumpy road to recovery for the real estate industry. The report was prepared by Nick Axford (top left photo) , Andrew Ness (middle right photo) , Kevin Stanley (bottom left photo) , Raymond Wong (bottom right photo)  and Raymond Torto (top right photo).

Highlights of the report:

The world's attention is focused today on the Euro crisis, and sovereign debt issues are now on the world's mind. The Euro crisis will be a bump for the improving global economy—whether it will be a major bump or small bump is yet to play out. CB Richard Ellis' view is to characterize global economies as "improving, but bumpy"—movement in a positive direction, but not a smooth or uninterrupted path.

Investment sales activity in the American markets continues to slowly revive from the depressed levels of 2009. For the market as a whole, aggregate 1Q 2010 volume surged 126% from 1Q 2009, when market activity hit trough levels.

In the US leasing market, the decreasing rate of decline in commercial property fundamentals and the surprise of outright improvement in multi-family, along with strong signs of life in the capital markets, have made the first quarter of 2010 the best quarter for commercial real estate in quite some time.

Entering 2010, Asian economies demonstrated more evidence of a heated recovery, bordering on overheating. Growth is being supported by a strong rebound in exports, coupled with the robust performance of consumer markets in China and India, the combination of which has resulted in an improvement in the region's economic performance.

The driver of economic growth in 1Q 2010 in the Pacific region was Australia, where the Reserve Bank was so convinced of the fast pace of recovery, it moved the interest rate target up 25 bps in March, April and May. The official cash rate target is now 4.50%—a high rate by global standards and a testament to the growing strength of the economy.

European commercial real estate investment reached €19.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 65% on the same quarter in 2009. This confirms the general upturn in European investment activity, and we expect a pronounced year-on-year improvement in 2010.

For a complete copy of the report, please contact Raymond Torto at  rtorto@cbremarketing.com.