Funds propel French volumes in December-January to EUR 4b

Non-listed funds propelled French real estate investment volumes into second place behind the UK in the last two calendar months, according to data on the most active European markets at the turn of the year from PropertyEU Research.

Fund managers like AEW Europe, La Francaise Real Estate Managers and BNP Paribas Real Estate each sealed a clutch of large deals in France during the period from December 2011 to end-January 2012 when PropertyEU recorded a volume of EUR 4.18 bn.

The largest French deal in the review period involved a group of French institutional investors acquiring 10 residential buildings in Paris from listed company Gecina for EUR 395 mln.

The second and third largest deals in France involved investment funds. In one transaction, an SCPI institutional fund vehicle managed by La Francaise Real Estate Managers acquired 97 supermarkets from retail giant Carrefour for EUR 365 mln.

The UK was the most active market in the review period with almost EUR 4.9 bn of transactions. Germany fell back to third place with a volume of EUR 1.8 bn.

The data is supported by research published in mid-January by CBRE, which showed property investment in France was up 65% in the fourth quarter last year compared to the previous three months.

However, the most recent signals suggest France is not as popular with investors as this data might suggest. Research by German investor Union Investment found that the property investment climate in France has deteriorated more significantly than in the UK and Germany over the six months to end-2011.

The claim is based on Union Investment's latest survey which polled 167 investors in Germany, France and the UK.

A full analysis of European deals during December and January, along with a final ranking of the top investors in 2011 is published in the March edition of PropertyEU Magazine. Click on the link below to subscribe: