Commercial real estate investment volume saw a steep drop in the fourth quarter, declining 63% year over year to $128 billion, according to CBRE. This brought last year’s total to $671 billion, 17% lower than 2021 but still the second highest on record.
Multifamily led all sectors for investment volume but also saw significant declines. In the fourth quarter, multifamily investment was down by 70% year over year to $48 billion. For the full year, volume totaled $279 billion, a 19% drop from 2021.
Industrial was the next preferred sector with $32 billion in investment volume for the fourth quarter, a 58% year-over-year decrease, followed by office at $19 billion, down 66%, and retail at $15 billion, down 58%.
According to the recent report from CBRE, Los Angeles with $53 billion and New York with $51 billion were the leading markets for commercial real estate investment volume last year. Of the top 20 markets, Nashville, Tennessee, was the only one to see year-over-year growth—23%.
For multifamily investment, Kansas City, Missouri, saw 28% year-over-year growth, followed by Nashville with a 13% increase and Indianapolis with a 6% increase.
In the fourth quarter, private buyers had the largest share of commercial real estate investment volume with $78.4 billion. In addition, according to CBRE, private and institutional investors were net buyers in the fourth quarter, and cross-border investors were net sellers.
Inbound cross-border investment volume in the fourth quarter was $6.2 billion. This is a year-over-year decline of 81%, which CBRE attributed largely to economic uncertainty and the strength of the U.S. dollar. Hotel was the top asset for foreign investment with $3 billion in the fourth quarter, followed by industrial with $1.2 billion and multifamily with $1 billion. Canada, with $11.8 billion, was the largest source of foreign investment for commercial real estate last year, followed by Germany at $1.9 billion and Spain at $1.8 billion.
