Record-breaking growth in China and Singapore has contributed to a global rise in commercial real estate investment, according to JLL.

Research from the firm's Global Capital Markets Research team shows global real estate investment volumes hit US$205 billion in the third quarter of this year, up 13 per cent than the same period last year, and bringing year-to-date activity to US$550 billion, one per cent better than 2018.

JLL Senior Analyst Pranav Sethuraman said commercial real estate was well-positioned to continue its strong performance, despite a global economic slowdown and mounting political uncertainty across the world.

“Returns for private real estate remain stable, while public real estate continues to outperform other major asset classes at the global level," he said.

"With the volume of capital held by funds that are yet to be deployed near all-time highs, investors, though increasingly cautious and selective, remain keen to access the sector.”

Despite the record-breaking investment in the Asia Pacific, a slowdown in EMEA’s core markets, namely Germany and the UK, caused regional investment to drop 13 per cent year-to-date.

Mr Sethuraman said this would likely impact the final 2019 volumes.

“While the final quarter is traditionally the busiest, we still expect full-year investment to soften by roughly 5 per cent, to around US$750 billion," he said.

"Even though the Asia Pacific continues to outperform, and the Americas surprised in Q3, the global decline will be primarily driven by weakness in EMEA, with activity likely to dip across all major sectors.”

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