[Excerpt] There are major shifts underway in the fundamental structure, or the underlying tectonic plates, of the global commercial real estate industry. These massive plate movements are creating an entirely new landscape within real estate and challenging long-held assumptions about commercial real estate investment, development, and ownership. The industry is transforming from a highly localized, deal-driven business to an international market characterized by lower transactions costs, abundant information, lower risk premiums, and increasing sophistication. Even the perception of real estate as an investment class is changing—investors increasingly see real estate as a stable, secure investment, producing solid returns with less volatility than stocks or many other investments.