Sonae Sierra puts 2 Portuguese malls on the market

Shopping centre specialist Sonae Sierra is believed to have hired C&W to sell the AlgarveShopping and Estação Viana malls in Portugal, PropertyEU has learned.

Located in Guia (Albufeira), AlgarveShopping was inaugurated in 2001 and recently expanded. It currently provides over 45,000 m2 with 130 shops.

The smaller Estação Viana Shopping in Viana do Castelo provides over 19,000 m2 of space over 94 shops and 600 parking spaces.

Sonae Sierra declined to comment.

Market outlook
Good quality assets such as these are expected to attract ‘huge interest’ from investors, predicted Francisco Horta e Costa, managing director of CBRE Portugal. ‘The overall sentiment is that we have never seen this level of market activity before. Virtually every investor has included Portugal in its investment strategy, largely favouring long-term, income-producing assets. But there are also investors which are looking for value-add product and are opportunity-driven. In this case the market can offer much more attractive cap rates.’

Portugal's real estate investment market went into hibernation following the global financial crisis and the country's ensuing deep recession. Activity has, however, picked up strongly this year, with nearly €1 bn invested in the first six months of the year, over 10% more than the whole of 2014 (€867 mln).

According to Horta e Costa, transactional activity may even hit €2 bn by year-end, as a result of a healthy deal pipeline of around €700 mln at present.

This would make it the best year ever recorded, representing over twice as much as 2014 and a six-fold increase on 2013. In 2012, Portuguese real estate reported as little as €105 mln of activity.

‘Portugal is on investors’ map again,’ said Horta e Costa. ‘A stable government, GDP growth and a recovering economy have transmitted confidence to cash-rich investors which believe that Portugal now offers a safe opportunity for a higher return.’