The final transaction volume recorded by PropertyEU for large European real estate deals in 2008 is EUR 68.13 bn. This is a revision of the preliminary estimate of about of EUR 66 bn published in our ranking of the top 300 deals in the December edition of PropertyEU Magazine.
The final transaction volume recorded by PropertyEU for large European real estate deals in 2008 is EUR 68.13 bn. This is a revision of the preliminary estimate of about of EUR 66 bn published in our ranking of the top 300 deals in the December edition of PropertyEU Magazine.
PropertyEU Research tracks deals of EUR 50 mln and above. The figures for 2008 show office remains the large segment, accounting for EUR 22.6 bn of the total investment last year.
The volume for the retail segment comes to EUR 16.8 bn, followed by mixed property (EUR 16.5 bn). Some EUR 8.2 bn was invested in the alternative segment. The hotel segment shows the influence of the credit crunch with deal volumes down at EUR 2.3 bn. A further EUR 1.6 bn was invested in the warehouse/distribution sector.
The big three countries in Western Europe continue to attract the lion's share of investment in the region. The UK - where the price correction has been steepest - attracted the largest share of EUR 50 mln-plus transactions, EUR 11.6 bn or 17% of the total. PropertyEU recorded EUR 9.3 bn of deals in Germany and just over EUR 7 bn in France. The Scandinavian region as a whole attracted EUR 12.2 bn of large real estate deals.
The revised figures also correct two anomalies in our published list of the 300 top deals in 2008. Due to an editing error in one element of the list the sale of Norgani Hotel Group was ranked at number 7 when in fact the deal was cancelled before finalisation.
Similarly Unibail-Rodamco did not buy back the Couer Defense tower in La Defense, Paris as incorrectly stated in the ranking. Unibail-Rodamco and the co-owning Whitehall Fund sold the property to Lehman Brothers RE Partners and Atemi for a sale value of EUR 2.1bn in 2007.