Australia continues to be a popular choice on the global investment stage thanks to its mature market and comparatively strong yields, although transaction volume has fallen this year as there just aren’t as many suitable investment properties available.

This is according to a study from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC which predicts emerging trends for 2017. If you’ve got some time on your hands you can read the full report here.

Australia has seen sustained interest from foreign investment for many years, but 2015 was the first time in a long time that domestic purchases made up the largest portion of investment-grade acquisitions. This comes from the need to invest a huge amount of capital from domestic pension funds.

ULI Australia Chairman John Carfiand said demand is outstripping supply at the moment, because not so much of the real estate coming onto the market is of a suitable quality for investors.

“We have noticed that although foreign investors are generally reluctant to migrate away from the CBD, a lack of available stock means they often have little choice if they want to place capital,” he said.

And Pacific favourites Sydney and Melbourne are facing tougher competition from elsewhere in the region, this year’s Investment Prospects survey shows. Two Indian cities top the list of emerging-market destinations, with Shenzhen in 5^th place and cities in Vietnam and the Philippines also featuring.

Previously popular gateway cities are quickly falling behind, the survey found, although Shanghai is managing to buck this trend – even though prices are high, the city has seen a resurgence in foreign investment over the past two years.

It seems that investors are holding on to properties for longer, seeing few opportunities to re-invest their capital if they sell. At the same time, it’s becoming harder to achieve a decent yield as returns are dropping almost across the board.