London remains the most attractive city in Europe for real estate investment in 2021, according to a survey by CBRE which reveals “cautious optimism” in the market.
The UK capital came out ahead of Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam, which made up the top five target cities among investors surveyed by CBRE across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Chris Brett, managing director of EMEA capital markets at CBRE, said: “As the global search for yield continues, more investors are looking to access the real estate sector and all major European markets are set to benefit.
“The certainty around Brexit has changed the mindset of some investors and pumped a renewed confidence into the London market, where we expect to see a lot of European capital deployed over the next 12 months.”
It comes amid a fresh wave of positivity across the continent after last year’s pandemic shock, as countries ramp up their vaccine programmes ahead of planned reopenings over the summer. Almost 60% of respondents expected to buy more real estate in 2021 than they did last year, while 80% said they intended to deploy more capital.
Germany is thought to be the most attractive country for investment, with four cities appearing in the list of investors’ top 10. It beat the Netherlands, France and Sweden, and the UK.
Henry Chin, global head of investors thought leadership at CBRE, said the results reflect investors’ “cautious optimism towards 2021”.
“Provided vaccination campaigns remain on schedule, CBRE expects European investment volumes to increase by up to 5% year-on-year this year, although there is likely to be some variance across countries and property types,” he said.
Despite the rise of remote and flexible working as a result of Covid-19, offices were found to be the preferred asset class among European investors. In this year’s survey, 35% of respondents indicated it was their preferred property sector, with multifamily closing the gap compared to last year at 24%, followed by industrial and logistics at 22%.
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