Berlin leads Big Six German cities for investment in 2012

Berlin chalked up an investment volume of €3.85 bn in 2012, putting it at the top of the German Big Six cities league.

The result marks an increase of 65% on 2011 and is Berlin's third-best performance to date, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate's Investment Market Report 2012 which is due to be published in mid-February.

Munich recorded investment volumes of €3.62 bn, followed by Frankfurt with €3.23 bn. 'Higher results were only recorded in the boom years of 2006 and 2007,' said Jan Dohrwardt, head of BNP Paribas Real Estate in Berlin.

Berlin’s top position was partly due to a rash of year-end transactions, with €1.8 bn of deals taking place in the final quarter alone. These included the sale of the Karstadt department store package (including the flagship KaDeWe store in Berlin) for some €500 mln and the disposal of the Kranzler Eck office property for some €375 mln.

The investment increase also reflects a higher number of transactions: 138 deals were recorded, up around 29% on 2011, of which nine were valued over €100 mln.

Offices were the most popular asset class in 2012, accounting for 49% of all deals, compared with 30% for retail and 11% for hotels. Logistics, light industrial and development assets accounted for less than 5% each.