Colliers CEE boss sees investment market rebound next year

The gap between buyers' and vendors' yield expectations is set to close in the Central and Eastern European real estate market, bringing back investment to the region. ‘The gap between buyers' and vendors' yield expectations has actually halved from 100 basis points a year ago to about 50 bp at present,’ said John Verpeleti, head of Colliers in CEE, at EXPO REAL in Munich.

‘If this trend continues over the next months, we will see a strong rebound in the CEE investment market next year. There will be space for negotiations and investors will come to the deal table again,’ he added. In the first three quarters of 2010, the market reported as little as EUR 800 mln worth of investment deals, mostly in Poland. ‘We are expecting the total for the year to amount to around EUR 2 bn, which compares to a peak of EUR 12 bn in 2007,’ Verpeleti said. Last year, the region saw around EUR 1.8 bn of commercial property change hands.