Since the start of the global economic recovery, Asia-based investors have unleashed a rising tide of capital on the world stage. In 2009 alone, they directly acquired more than $2 billion worth of commercial property in the United Kingdom, nearly five times as much as they deployed in the United States that year.

“Europe was the first beneficiary of offshore investment activity post-crisis,” says David Green-Morgan, global capital markets research director at Jones Lang LaSalle.

After real estate values in London made a sharp downward correction in 2008–2009, Middle Eastern and Asian investors took notice. They eventually broadened their scope to other European markets. In time, Asia-based investors started to look seriously at the United States. Encouraged by the much-improved U.S. economic outlook and rebounding prices, investors