Europe’s commercial real estate investment market has had its strongest first half in eight years, putting it on course to eclipse the annual record level attained at the tail-end of the last market boom in 2007 by December, analysis by research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA) shows.
Unprecedented transaction levels in London, plus strong increases in the Nordic region, the Iberian peninsula and Italy, powered Europe’s €135.3 billion of investment activity in the first six months of the year—a 37% rise compared with the first half of 2014. The growth in investment in the first three months of 2015 continued into the second quarter, when there was a 16% rise from the same period a year earlier to €65.5 billion.
Simon Mallinson, RCA’s Managing Director for EMEA & APAC, said: “Europe may surpass the record set in 2007 as real estate continues to attract a broad range of investors looking for higher yielding assets. Eight years ago, activity slowed in the second half as the credit crunch began to bite and escalated into the full-blown Global Financial Crisis. Historic low interest rates, reduced levels of leverage and the broadening investor base mean that market conditions are currently very different from then.”
Source: RCA Analytics