Commercial property investment markets remained in the deepfreeze in the opening quarter with volumes 31% down on Q4 2011 at €25.3bn.
Year on year volumes fell marginally, by 1.5%, to €121.5bn in the year to March 2012.
Foreign investors pulled back from the market to a slightly lesser degree than domestic players, and as a result saw their market share rise to 37% from 35% in 2011.
Offices were the strongest sector over the year, with volumes rising 19% on Q1 2011 compared to a 55% fall for retail and a 35% drop for industrial.
The main areas of growth in activity have been in the Nordics, Poland and Switzerland while France, Italy, the UK and the rest of Central Europe dropped back after a busier Q4 2011.
Prospects for the rest of the year are being trimmed but there is still some confidence that increasing levels of stock and a growing need to act will lead to a firming in the market as the year goes by.
Investment in the European commercial property market in Q1 2012 fell to its lowest level since Q1 2010 according to the latest research by Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm.
The banking sector is the centre of attention but is pulling in different directions, on the one hand promising to feed investors with stock as deleveraging and asset sales pick-up, but on the other enforcing a strict diet due to the near freeze on new lending.
Retail has been the hardest hit sector by the slowdown in activity, with its market share dropping to just 22% versus an average of 32% during 2011. Offices, by contrast, have jumped up to 53% as against an average of 45% in 2011. Industrial has been relatively stable with an 8.3% share (8.9% in 2011).
