Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits: Unique Investment Strategies for Today's Global Capital Markets

CHAPTER 7

Accessing Foreign Real Estate

Up until the last few years, investment professionals did not spend much time considering the implementation of significant amounts of foreign real estate into their portfolios; until the implosion of the domestic real estate market, along with the historical relative inaccessibility of real estate in foreign countries, there was little reason to seriously consider “going global.” The United States was motoring along quite nicely, and the perceived challenges of investing globally, particularly directly, seemed to substantially outweigh the benefits, considering that was what is available in the United States.

That perception has been radically altered by the great economic meltdown of 2008, and while U.S. real estate has the potential to remain every bit the beneficial investment opportunity it has always been, it is time for the skilled hedge fund-minded investor to look with great scrutiny at opportunities available overseas. One of the enablers of effective global real estate investment has been the Internet, which has allowed for a more prompt and effective flow of information. Additionally, many nations have actively sought to relax once-stringent rules regarding the purchase of real estate by non-nationals.

One of the reasons we like going global with real estate has to do with the demonstrated low correlation that exists among real estate markets on a worldwide basis, and there are numerous pieces of information that attest to that ...