European companies and governments could shed €70bn of real estate over the next four years, says DTZ Research.
Its new survey, Money into property – Europe, estimates that sale-and-leasebacks, outsourcing and pure disposals could raise transaction activity by 15% pa on the levels seen in recent years.
The biggest potential sources of investment-grade assets are Germany (20%), with 14% each from the UK and France.
“There is enormous potential for increasing the size of Europe’s investment market,” says Joe Valente, director of UK research and development.
“In the UK we have seen a few big transactions. But next we should see more small ones. For example, local authorities have £10bn of surplus property.”
DTZ also measured the level of debt funding real estate across Europe at over E800m. But it says there is a potential mismatch between lenders’ and investors’ property preferences.
See July’s EuroProperty, pp14-15, published next week
