CBRE Italy sees market turnaround

Italy saw €620 mln of commercial real estate deals in the first quarter of 2013, an indication that the investment market is on its way to recovery, according to agent CBRE.

The figure represents a 36% increase on the fourth quarter of 2012, and over one third of the investment figure for the whole of last year. The broker expects investment volumes this year to surpass €3 bn across the country with the financial capital Milan forecast to account for half the total, or €1.5 bn.

'International investors, particularly those with an opportunistic profile, prefer to continue the negotiations started in the summer of 2012 rather than wait for the outcome on the political front,' said Paolo Bellacosa, executive director of Capital Markets at CBRE.

Opportunity-driven investors such as Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, Hammerson, Europa Capital, and Carlyle, are all sounding out the market, Bellacosa added. PropertyEU has learned that Blackstone has hired Prelios' former CEO Paolo Bottelli as a strategic consultant for investing in Italy while Morgan Stanley is targeting the country as part of a strategy to focus on liquidity-starved markets.

Core investors like Deka, Allianz as well as some sovereign wealth funds are also considering an entry or a comeback into the market, Bellacosa added.

According to CBRE's data, the deal pipeline currently amounts to around €900 mln in the city of Milan alone. In total, the broker estimates that there is around €1.3 bn of property on the market in the country, largely consisting of retail assets.

'If the existing offers go through, the market would finally see the repricing initiated over the past months, and values would be very far from those seen at market peak in 2006 and 2007,' noted Alessandro Mazzanti, CEO of CBRE Italy.