The subprime mortgage crisis has sent the U.S. residential market into a tailspin, and subsequent contagion has caused commercial real estate capital markets and investors around the globe to pause to reassess and reprice risk. However, opportunity funds, pension funds and foreign investors have plenty of capital to invest. For those investors who can identify the opportunities and act swiftly, the current market offers attractive values, especially on the debt side and in residential land.

Between 1947 and 1962, 14 million new single-family homes were built in the United States. More than 10 million of these homes were built on farmland and in the smaller communities that fanned out from the existing urban cores of America’s cities. These suburban developments offered competitively priced housing built on land that absorbed less than 20 percent of total development costs.

Sentiment in the European office market had, until the credit crunch hit, been relatively upbeat, as buoyant business confidence coupled with improving employment prospects added weight to office sector performance. Nevertheless, more expensive borrowing and a heightened uncertainty in global finance and credit markets have left their mark on real estate since the late summer of 2007.