Investors set a record for U.S. commercial-property sales last year, betting that the pandemic is reordering how Americans live, work and play, the Wall Street Journal reported. Real-estate buyers loaded up on warehouses, which serve as fulfillment centers for the e-commerce boom. They bought apartment buildings to capitalize on record high rents. They paid up for resorts and vacation-oriented hotels that benefited from the resurgence in travel to leisure destinations. Overall, commercial-property sales totaled a record $809 billion in 2021, according to data firm Real Capital Analytics. That was nearly double 2020’s total, and it exceeded the previous record of about $600 billion in 2019. The surge in activity reflects investors’ views that work and lifestyle changes brought on by COVID-19 aren’t fleeting. They are wagering hundreds of billions of dollars on that belief. Real-estate investors say they don’t see 2022 sales slowing down much, if at all, from last year’s record pace. Demand for fulfillment centers, other logistics properties and apartment buildings remains strong. That is in part because of supply-chain shortages that are limiting development of such properties, keeping prices of existing inventory high.
