Prolonged periods of low real interest rates tend to be associated with property booms. Think South-East Asia in the mid-1990s or Spain and Ireland in this century's first decade. During the debt crisis of 2007 and 2008 commercial-property investors lost around half their capital. That slump reminded investors that the asset class is anything but a one-way bet. Lost ground has been regained, particularly in prime locations, although there is still nothing like the buzz around commercial property that there is around equities, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting new highs and the Tokyo stockmarket surging by 77% before its recent fall.
展开▼
