Many of the world’s commercial real estate markets are showing some stabilization and recovery at the mid-point 2009, CB Richard Ellis reports. One notable exception is the United States where vacancy rates in the office, industrial and retail property markets continued to rise in the second quarter of 2009. Positive developments in international commercial markets included:

• an uptick in investment sales volume in Asia, where the market has adjusted quickly and pricing may have hit bottom in some cities in the second quarter.
• stabilization of property markets in the Pacific region after 18 months of turmoil.
• increased activity in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) investment market to €13 billion from €11.6 billion in the first quarter of 2009, with expectation for further improvement in the fourth quarter.

The prospects for commercial real estate during the balance of this year remain mixed. “It is startling how much more optimism is found in Asia, compared with investor sentiment in mature economies,” said Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE’s Global Chief Economist. “It is obvious that the countries most burdened with weak credit institutions are in for a longer recovery period than others. While the severe recession of the last year was synchronized across the globe, the recoveries will widely vary, determined mostly by the strength of a country’s banking system.” For another International real estate news source or Denver real estate trends I invite you to visit our Denver real estate website.