US real estate consultant allays fears of slump in international market http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/05/04/10122706.html 05/04/2007 07:11 PM | Reuters Chicago: Coming off a quarter that left Wall Street mesmerised, the chief executive of Chicago-based real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle said he doesn't see any signs of weakening in the industry worldwide. "We are stuck where the levels of transactions are fairly sustained at a very high level," Colin Dyer, Jones Lang LaSalle chief executive said. "What I am focused on is where are the early indicators and are there any changes. We just cannot see any at the moment." After the stock market closed on Tuesday, Jones Lang reported first-quarter earnings of 75 cents per share before one-time items, far above analysts' average forecast of seven cents, according to estimates. Good show "We had general sense that things were going well, but they had been going well last year as well," he said. "It was really only until we added it all up that we saw really how strong the quarter had been." Jones Lange manages and invests in real estate for institutional and wealthy investors. It also oversees the real estate needs for global corporations, leases office and retail space and brokers sales of commercial real estate, including hotels, offices, warehouses and retail properties. The company's larger rival, CB Richard Ellis Group, reported earnings of 27 cents per share, excluding items, compared with analysts' average forecast of 15 cents. Jones Lang shares reached an all-time high of $123.91 on Wednesday and closed at $120.10. Both companies credited their success in part to the unyielding strength in the demand for real estate around the globe. "The whole phenomena is pretty much the same around the world," Dyer said. "It's just a matter of degree. There will come a point where there's a slowing down. But I'm not going to spend my time in with my eyes in the rear view mirror, watching for a truck coming up from behind. You have to keep driving, keep moving the business forward along our declared and chosen path." The real estate boom is being fuelled by job growth, corporate profit growth and corporate confidence in the future, Dyer felt. The hunger for real estate has sent buyers around the globe. In 2006, global commercial real estate transactions reached $682 billion, up 38 per cent from the prior year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. About 42 per cent of the transactions involved cross-border sales, up from 34 per cent, and 29 per cent were considered cross-regional, up from 23 per cent in 2005. Investment sources "Money is coming from the Middle East and Australia and going into Europe and the US and Asia/Pacific," Dyer said. Investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries - the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - have been putting their oil revenues to work, investing $13 billion in global real estate markets in 2006, up 14 per cent from 2005, Jones Lang said. They spent $13 billion, in the US, $4 billion in the United Kingdom and $1 billion each in Germany and South Africa. Although Europeans and Americans have been raising large amounts in funds targeted for real estate investment in China, India and Russia, the actual amount of money spent so far as been relatively small, with $9 billion put to work in China, $6 billion in India and $4 billion in Russia, Dyer said. "There's a lot of talk and a lot of research, but not so much actually being done," he said.