Investment Notes

Globalization is creating greater transparency in real estate investment markets around the world. In July, Jones Lang LaSalle released its annual survey of commercial real estate regimes around the world. The study, which was first conducted in 1999, measures national markets on a variety of crieria including introduction of new investment performance benchmarks, more financial disclosure by public comapnies and improved government oversight of those companies. Rankings range from Tier 1 (Highly Transparent) to Tier 5 (Opaque).

“Overall, two-thirds of the countries ranked in our 2004 survey exhibited some or significant improvement,” says Jacques Gordon, LaSalle Investment Management’s Global Investment Strategist. “Some 14 countries moved up a full tier and none slipped back. “ Big gains were made by Japan and India, both moving from Tier 4 to Tier 3. In Europe, France and Sweden moved up from transparent to highly transparent, and Portugal and Italy moved from semi-transparent to transparent. In the Americas, the biggest improvement was in Mexico, which moved from a low Tier 3 score to a high Tier 3.

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