Carpe diem, says RELA.

There is no need to panic if the commercial real estate market is doing well.

Speaking at the Real Estate Lenders Association's monthly meeting, Norman Sturner, founding partner of Murray Hill Properties, promised that the real estate bubble will not burst in the foreseeable future.

Citing such factors as a growing economy, a favorable Euro to dollar exchange rate and tight product supply, Sturner said New York's market fundamentals were sound.

"You have to take advantage of this moment," he said. "There are seven ingredients [that make for a great market]: limited land space, high cost of property replacement, low long-term interest rates, an expanding economy, an abundance of overseas and domestic capital, tight access of availabilities and competitive lenders.

"There were times in the past when only one or two of these ingredients were available. If you want to wait [for a better opportunity], you'll have to wait for a long time." Sturner suspects that both foreign and domestic institutions will continue to invest in New York properties for some time, lured by bargain prices and low interest rates in the other.

He noted the recent sale of 200 Park Ave., which was taken off the market for $1.7 billion and still left a lot of bidders disappointed to losel.

"We are talking about someone spending billions of dollars and there being 25 losers," he said. "Coming here and buying stuff is cheap compared to London, Tokyo or Paris. Our assets look inexpensive. Foreign pension funds are actually talking about increasing their permitted allocation to American products.

Sturner agreed that New York real estate players should protect themselves by keeping a high reserve of capital and doing meticulous calculations before investing in a new deal. But "there doesn't have to be a real estate bubble," he said. "A 10% to 20% increase [on an investment] annually for the next several years is a terrific return for anybody."