Cross-border buyers helped lift European real estate investment volumes last year to the highest level since the last pre-crisis year of 2007, according to Savills.

Cross-border buyers helped lift European real estate investment volumes last year to the highest level since the last pre-crisis year of 2007, according to Savills.

The property adviser's latest European Investment Bulletin found that 2013 recorded the highest pan-European investment volume in six years with around €141 bn transacted, representing a 21% rise on 2012.

The markets in the survey included Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and UK.

Whilst 77% of this investment turnover was recorded in the core markets UK, Germany and France, the peripheral markets have shown significant growth.

The markets of Greece (+1011%), Ireland (+210%) and Italy (+138%), alongside the UK (+43%), Poland (+28%) and Germany (+20%), recorded the strongest year-on-year increases in transactional volumes.

Greece stood out with a ten-fold rise in transaction volumes, at €900 mln, as a result of the privatisation of the sale of public assets.

For 2014 Savills expects to see double-digit growth in investment volumes in Ireland (+32%), Sweden (+30%) and France (+24%) reflecting a return to normal activity levels. Double-digit growth is also expected in Spain (+19%) confirming the ongoing interest in this market with investors believing that prices have bottomed out.

Marcus Lemli, head of Savills European investment, said: 'Overseas investors are driving activity in many European markets. Non-European buyers have increased their share of the region's investment volume to almost 30%, up from 25% in 2012. This can be attributed to the investment preferences of global buyers currently active in Europe.

'For example US investment, the largest global source of cross border money, comes largely in the form of private equity funds who tend to prefer large portfolio acquisitions. Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Asia Pacific, who are the other main group of global players currently active in Europe, usually go for investments of at least €200 mln.'

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