High-net-worth investors are expected to continue pouring capital into U.S. commercial real estate in 2016, experts say, but they are fine-tuning their strategies to enter markets in which institutional investors are too risk-averse to play.

As 2016 wraps, it is expected that transaction data for private investors will show an increase in investment volume but that it will be more spread out into secondary and tertiary markets, according to Richard Putnam, managing director of the Western region capital markets group at real estate services firm Colliers International. Putnam defines private investors as individual investors and family offices.

“Private investors have been more crowded out the last couple of years and are looking at second-tier cities globally. The story in North America for private investors has been the growth of interest in smaller cities,” says Yolande Barnes, director of world research for Savills.

These investors are focusing not on preservation of capital but on income production.

Commercial real estate has come to the forefront as a vehicle for yield that other investment tools, such as bonds, have not been able to deliver.