Three major retail property deals helped lift total European real estate transaction volume to EUR 5 bn in February, a 36% increase compared with January, according to data compiled by PropertyEU. The investment volume for the month was also up 25% on the figure for February last year. The three major retail details accounted for a quarter of the total volume. Unibail-Rodamco, the largest listed real estate group in Europe, was involved in two of them.

Three major retail property deals helped lift total European real estate transaction volume to EUR 5 bn in February, a 36% increase compared with January, according to data compiled by PropertyEU. The investment volume for the month was also up 25% on the figure for February last year. The three major retail details accounted for a quarter of the total volume. Unibail-Rodamco, the largest listed real estate group in Europe, was involved in two of them.

The largest was the acquisition of seven shopping centres from Simon Ivanhoe for EUR 715 mln. In the same period, Unibail-Rodamco strengthened its focus on dominant shopping centres in major European hubs by divesting five medium-sized malls to Amsterdam-listed Wereldhave for EUR 235 mln.

Meanwhile Union Investment, one of the major German open-ended fund managers not hit by the recurring redemption crisis, acquired control of the Alexa shopping centre for EUR 316 mln.

France saw the most action in February with 13 transactions, including Unibail-Rodamco’s purchase from Simon Ivanhoe, which pushed the total to around EUR 1 bn. The UK saw six deals totalling EUR 746 mln. PropertyEU reported 32 deals in Germany in February but in most cases the investment volumes were not disclosed.

See the March edition of PropertyEU Magazine for the full list of February deals