European retail investment increases 34%
Published: 19 July, 2011
Direct investment in retail real estate in Europe during the second quarter of 2011 reached €4.9bn, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Total investment volumes for the year to date now stand at €13.6bn, 34 per cent up over the same period last year.
The majority of investment activity remained focused on the UK and Germany, accounting for 56 per cent of total volumes over the quarter.
Shopping centres remained the most sought after asset type, accounting for 59 per cent of total retail volumes traded over the quarter. This trend was less pronounced in the UK where 29 deals for retail warehouses completed over the quarter with an average deal size of €21m.
Jeremy Eddy, head of EMEA Retail Capital Markets at Jones Lang LaSalle, said: “Northern European markets that offer attractive fundamentals are however constrained by stock availability. It remains true across the majority of Europe that there is significant equity available for high quality assets and we expect the trend we identified of equity partnering expertise to accelerate further.”
James Brown, head of EMEA Retail Research at Jones Lang LaSalle added: “Against the backdrop of a volatile European economic recovery, investment volumes in the first half of this year have continued to improve year on year, although a handful of significant deals have certainly flattered the numbers. The second quarter has been characterised by a continued growth in the geography of transactions. We enter the third quarter with significant momentum and pipeline transactions which have or will close by the end of September.”
