The Finnish real estate market has got its mojo back after a few difficult years, with investment activity in the first six months of 2014 up 45% on the year-earlier figure.

The Finnish real estate market has got its mojo back after a few difficult years, with investment activity in the first six months of 2014 up 45% on the year-earlier figure.

Some €1.25 bn of Finnish real estate traded from January to end-June 2014, the highest H1 result since 2008, according to preliminary figures from KTI.

The Helsinki-based property research firm recorded €630 mln of transactions in the first quarter and about the same again in the following three months. The combined H1 volume is 45% up on the €860 mln reported in the year-earlier period.

The preliminary figures do not yet include big acquisitions being undertaken by new logistics joint venture Certeum. As reported in PropertyEU on 30 April Finnish listed real estate firm Sponda and pension-insurer Varma are seeding Certeum by selling €920 mln of assets to the vehicle.

Foreign investment in Finnish real estate is also picking up. KTI's data indicates cross-border players accounted for 50% of the H1 volume this year. Recent deal makers include Paris-based AXA Real Estate, Switzerland's UBS funds, Dutch pension fund asset manager APG and Aberdeen Real Estate.

Among the most international deals were two office acquisitions in Helsinki carried out during July by AXA Real Estate on behalf of its Caesar Fund, a vehicle for Italian institutional investors.