Cross-border direct commercial real estate investment volumes reached $37 bn (EUR 26 bn) in Q1 2011, up 25% from a year ago, according to the latest Global Capital Flows report from Jones Lang LaSalle.

Inter-regional volumes (capital moving between the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific) rose to $26 bn, a 70% increase over Q1 2010. This emphasises the appetite real estate investors have for acquiring foreign assets and far exceeds the 40% gain across the total market (cross border plus domestic investment) in the first quarter, JLL said.

The most active cross-border purchasers in Q1 were the global funds, Canada, Singapore and Germany. Meanwhile, the Americas region was the largest net beneficiary in terms of inter-regional capital inflows, at $2.6 bn, followed by EMEA with an inflow of $2.2 bn.

Asia-Pacific experienced a net outflow of $3.3 bn in the quarter, highlighting the importance of both private and institutional capital coming from that region's high growth economies.