“Big assets, big cities, big capital, and big competition. The U.S. is more in favor than the rest of the world right now.” Directly from PwC’s 38th annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report for 2017, this conclusion presents the strength of real estate in the United States. While many broad generalizations of uncertainty about investing in U.S. real estate in the midst of the current global political climate pervade conversations, experts ignore these speculations and rely on the trends they see occurring in order to properly weigh different growing opportunities.
According to PwC’s survey, the issue of the political landscape was listed as the least important social or political issue for 2017, whereas terrorism/war/epidemics was considered the most important. Despite any issues, “the USA was cited as providing sustainable economic growth, the rule of law, transparency and relative overall security for investment,” according to Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) members in the organization’s 2017 Foreign Investment Survey. The survey specifically notes that “the USA continues to be the country that AFIRE members view as having the most stable and secure investment markets. They also continue to view the USA as the country providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation.”
But where in the U.S. are these foreign property investors buying? The National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) 2016 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate found that Florida, California, Texas, Arizona and New York were among the top five states with the most sales last year. The same report also explained that behind primary residence, residential investment and vacation home were the second and third intended uses for these properties.
Lennar, one of America’s largest homebuilders and a leader in U.S. real estate development for more than 60 years, sees the same trends. The success and continued interest from foreign buyers in projects such as ChampionsGate, a city unto itself featuring short-term rental properties, located in prime vacation spot Orlando, FL; The San Francisco Shipyard, a mixed-use, transformative urban neighborhood on the bay just outside of bustling San Francisco, CA; The Avenue Collection and Henley on the Hudson, two stunning waterfront luxury condominiums just across the river in New Jersey with spectacular views of the New York City skyline; and Great Park Neighborhoods, a robust community of unique collections in suburban Irvine, CA prove that the right community in the right market will be most attractive to investors.
Chris Marlin, President of Lennar International, a division of Lennar Corporation, understands that “there is a lot of uncertainty about the world. We need to remind our partners and potential buyers that despite this uncertainty, investing in the U.S. real estate market offers endless reasons, as long as you are investing with an experienced, consumer-oriented, transparent and highly regarded builder, co-investor, operator … like Lennar. Lennar is happy to roll out the welcome mat for everyone.
Disruption is around every corner – and on every phone. The way the U.S. real estate industry does business could be at the vanguard of the next great disruption. Lennar sees this as an opportunity to evolve rapidly to embrace the change that is inevitable in this industry — and to lead our customers and investors into tomorrow’s realities, today.
However, Brand America is alive and well. The USA remains, and is expected to remain for a long time, the number one destination for real estate capital, globally. And Lennar will continue to demonstrate why its core principles of quality, value and integrity make its platform the premier destination for U.S. real estate investment.
