More and more businesses are opening up to the idea of purchasing an office space of their own or regaining the buildings and office spaces they had, before the global financial crisis of 2008, rather than leasing office spaces from investors or other sellers.
During the 2008 crisis, which hit the US economy rather hard, the trend among many businesspersons was to sell their owned buildings to investors and raise cash. Now that the US economy is well into recuperation, it is witnessing another trend – businesspersons buying their properties once again.
What is driving the trend?
Two reasons at the forefront of this growing trend are the decreased availability of vacant spaces and increased options for financing.
According to Mark Gallagher, the senior strategist at the Los Angeles-based CBRE Group’s Investment Strategy Services Group, the number of owners who are repurchasing their properties for occupancy has significantly increased. He remarks that property owners and users still fall into the “net sellers” category but the trend is steadily shifting towards purchasers.
Data from another noted real estate company, CoStar COMP, reveals that corporate users and owners who bought properties, outweighed the number that sold properties in 2013. Compared to 5,125 owners and users who were sellers, there were 5,577 corporate buyers who purchased property worth $500,000.
C-level executives want more flexibility and agility
The trend is also being driven by the clients’ desire to have agile and flexible work spaces – something they cannot achieve in rented offices. According to Christian Beaudoin, the director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s corporate research department, top executives from C-level are pressing their corporations for buy-backs. He reasons that leaseback sales allow their occupiers more flexibility and a large gain on the asset-value. They also give the purchaser a tenant with stable credits – a win-win situation for both.
What Top Orlando Realtors have to say
For growing markets like Florida, where the government is keen to provide additional incentives in an attempt to get more businesses to set their offices up in the state, the trend is welcome news for the real estate industry.
Property values in central Florida have picked up, especially during the last year. The number of foreclosed properties, as well as distressed loans, has reduced and banks are now more confident in lending owner-occupied loans to corporations. In the 12 months that ended on September 30, 2013, U.S. banks hiked their owner-occupied, commercial real estate loans by 1.7 percent.
Industry experts note that most of these loans are relatively short-termed- 3 to 5 years only. Real estate agents in Orlando, especially the Orlando short sale specialists say they are hopeful that the growing trend will help the Orlando real estate market recover faster than expected. https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/
