The Dallas area was the country’s top market for commercial property investments in the first half of 2021.
Dallas retained the top real estate spot it gained last year during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by Real Capital Analytics.
Through the first six months of this year, Dallas saw almost $13.4 billion in commercial property deals — 43% more than in the same period a year ago. Last year, more than $19.7 billion in commercial real estate deals were recorded in the local market.
“After claiming the top spot in 2020, Dallas was once again the number one market for U.S. commercial investment activity for the first half of 2021,” Real Capital analysts say in their latest industry update. “Unlike 2020, Dallas did not wind up on top of the list because of a boost from portfolio activity.
“For the first time, Dallas’ single asset deal activity would also have it ranked as the number one market for the first half of the year.”
Sales of dozens of local apartment communities and warehouses, plus the $700 million purchase of Uptown Dallas’ Crescent complex, all contributed to the huge volume of property investments in the area this year.
The Crescent was ranked as the second biggest commercial property deal in the country in the first six months of 2021.
Atlanta was second nationally with $11.1 billion in real estate deals. Los Angeles was third with $10.7 billion.
Houston ranked sixth with almost $7 billion in transactions in the first half of the year. Austin was seventh with more than $6 billion.
The Dallas area had almost three times the dollar volume of commercial property investments as Manhattan, where transactions were down 39% year-over-year.
“A year ago, we noted that a storm had hit the commercial property markets, but the headline figures for second-quarter 2021 suggest that this storm has mostly passed,” analysts for New York-based Real Capital Analytics said in their latest study. “There are still pockets of trouble and some minimal repricing signs, but the pandemic’s impact was not as bad as many had feared.
“The market in total has not just rebounded but may well be into a new expansion.”
Nationwide, the biggest totals of commercial property purchases so far this year have been industrial and apartment buildings. Sales of retail and hotels had some of the lowest volumes.
