Q1 real estate investment volume falls 27.6% year-over-year

First quarter real estate investment volume in the United States fell by 27.6 percent year-over-year to $92.4 billion but was on par with average first quarter volume from 2011 to 2020, according to a CBRE analysis of data from Real Capital Analytics. Excluding entity-level and large portfolio transactions, first quarter investment volume fell by 20.4 percent year-over-year.

Private investors remained active, while REITs/public companies registered the largest year-over-year decline in transaction volume (down 75.0 percent).

While the annualized total return of 2.6 percent in the first quarter was half of what it was a year ago, it gained a full percentage point from fourth quarter 2020, mainly as asset appreciation started to recover. Across all sectors, industrial saw the largest appreciation at 9.3 percent, while hotels registered the greatest depreciation, declining 20.7 percent.

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