Institutional investors displaced real estate investment trusts (REITs) as the top buyers of office properties during the first quarter, REIT.com reported.

Net purchases by institutional investors totaled nearly $1.4 billion, compared with $1.3 billion in purchases by public REITs, according to CoStar Group Inc.

Chris Macke, senior real estate strategist with CoStar, said a slowdown in institutional selling led to the change.

“When I look at the REITs being the largest net buyers in three out of four quarters, it’s because institutions were selling so much,” he said. “The reason why the private equities and the privates were net sellers was because they didn’t have access to the capital the way the public REITs did.”

Though it’s hard to tell whether institutions will continue holding on to their properties, Macke said, the market would be better off if more institutions become net buyers as opposed to net sellers.