European investment volumes fell a further 34% in the first quarter of 2009, the largest quarterly fall recorded, according to new research published by property services firm Atisreal. London saw the biggest volume of transactions at almost double the volume for Paris and more than treble the other five major European cities in the Atisreal index (Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Brussels).
European investment volumes fell a further 34% in the first quarter of 2009, the largest quarterly fall recorded, according to new research published by property services firm Atisreal. London saw the biggest volume of transactions at almost double the volume for Paris and more than treble the other five major European cities in the Atisreal index (Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Brussels).
Reasons for the progressive fall in investment volumes centre on the lack of large transactions due to tight credit conditions and the reduction of loan to values which is evident across Europe.
Even London, which experienced the biggest volume of investment of the seven cities at EUR 948 mln, had less than a quarter of the volume transacted in Q1 of 2008. Madrid saw only a tenth of the volume in this quarter compared to Q1 2008, while Brussels saw less than a fiftieth of investment between the two periods compared.
Andrew Cruickshank, international investment director at Atisreal, expects to see much more investment activity in the UK in the second half of the year as a result of more prime stock becoming available on or off market. 'At present, vendors have been loath to sell their well-let, Central London trophy buildings but give it six months, and it may be a very different story indeed,' he said.
