With deals totaling $30 billion, strong merger and acquisitions (M&A) activity created a surge in the commercial real estate market in the second half of 2018. However, industry M&A slowed in the first half of 2019, where deals totaled just $2.2 billion — almost $28 billion less than the latter half of last year, according to data by Ten-X Commercial. But the comparison is lopsided given that the first quarter of 2018 recorded the highest total quarterly M&A deal value in real estate since 2009.
One of the largest 2018 real estate M&A deals to be announced was by Two Harbors Investment Corp., acquiring CYS Investments, a specialty finance company that invests on a leveraged basis primarily in residential mortgage. The sales price was $11.5 billion. Another high-priced M&A transaction was by Brookfield Asset Management, which paid $11.4 billion for Forest City Realty Trust.
Prologis also completed a high-priced M&A. It acquired DCT Industrial T
