Dutch investment volumes top €10b in 2014

Real estate investment volumes in the Netherlands doubled to over €10 bn in 2014 compared to 2013 on the back of a year-end deal spurt, according to research by PropertyEU.

In the final quarter of the year alone, more than €4 bn of property changed hands. This compares with €5.6 bn of transactions for the whole of 2013.

The year-end total of €10.03 bn includes a number of deals for which the purchase prices were communicated to PropertyEU by the parties involved but not made public. In addition, the figure includes a number of confidential deals reported to and verified by PropertyEU.

The findings underscore the progressive liquidity of the Dutch real estate market over the course of 2014. In the first quarter of this year, PropertyEU Research recorded ‘just’ €1.67 bn of investment transactions, followed by €2.41 bn and €1.86 bn in the second and third quarters respectively.

A notable finding was the large number of transactions over €50 mln – 48 in total compared with 25 in 2013 - which helped boost the overal figure. The number of smaller deals (over €1 mln) also grew, to 660 from 461 in 2013. More than half of these were portfolio transactions.

Foreign investors dominated the scene last year, accounting for 65% of investments against 35% for domestic players. US capital was particularly prominent, capturing 27% of the total volume compared with 14% for German investors, traditionally the biggest investor group in the Netherlands.

Despite the ongoing malaise in the sector, offices were the most sought-after asset class, accounting for 39% of the investment total, followed by rental homes (26%), retail (13%) and industrial assets (12%).

In terms of locations, Amsterdam took the lead with €2.45 bn of transactions, followed at some distance by Rotterdam (€700 mln), The Hague (€400 mln), Utrecht (€200 mln) and Eindhoven (€100 mln).

PropertyEU Research is currently verifying a number of confidential transactions which could propel the definitive year-end total for 2014 to over €10.1 bn.

For more on the prospects for Dutch real estate, see the article, video interviews and presentations from our Outlook 2015: Europe & The Netherlands investment briefing.