Real estate investment volumes came to €850 mln in the Baltic States last year, an increase of 8% on the prior year, Colliers International has said.
Real estate investment volumes came to €850 mln in the Baltic States last year, an increase of 8% on the prior year, Colliers International has said.
The momentum, coming from several years of inaction in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, is continuing in 2015. In February, Swiss private asset manager Partners Group made its first foray into the Baltics with the acquisition of the bulk of the BPT Optima portfolio for €163 mln.
Zug-based Partners Group has created a new investment vehicle to acquire the package which comprises seven office and retail properties in the Baltic cities of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda, totalling 112,000 m2 of lettable space. The portfolio also includes the Young City urban regeneration site in the Polish city of Gdansk, including the former shipyards on the city's waterfront.
In its latest report on the region, Colliers International said Latvia was the most active market with almost €317 mln of investment, followed by Lithuania (€298 mln) and Estonia (€240 mln).
Mixed-use projects, including properties with redevelopment potential, was the most active sector in Latvia. Offices were the main asset class in Lithuania, with deals including Finnish construction group YIT selling the 10,000 m2 Grand Office in to Capital Mill, an Estonian mutual fund. Industrial property and retail assets were the most popular segments in Estonia.
Investor groups
Baltics real estate has traditionally functioned as an extension of the Nordics, and the main investors tend to be funds and asset managers with capital that mainly originates from Nordic countries, as well as Russia.
However, new investors from Western Europe have appeared and new groups of local investors have formed as well. Colliers' experts forecast a similar volume of investments in the Baltic States in 2015. Moreover, new professional investors from other regions might appear on the Baltic commercial real estate market, the report suggests.
