CBRE has announced the results of its latest 'Real Estate Investor Intentions' survey, with Warsaw scoring second among the top targets for investors in Europe in 2012.
Launched at MIPIM 2012 yesterday, CBRE's latest 'Real Estate Investor Intentions' survey, completed by more than 340 leading property investors, provides high level insights into investor sentiment towards international real estate markets and forecasts activity for the year ahead.
London was head and shoulders above other named cities as the top target for investors in Europe, with 37% of investors pin-pointing it as the premier investment destination in Europe in 2012. The second most popular city was Warsaw (12%), reflecting that market's strong economic fundamentals. Paris was in third position (9%) following on from the high level of investment activity there in 2011, before the German cities of Munich (8%) and Berlin (7%).
"The position of Warsaw among the most desired property investment destinations in Europe reflects Poland's well-deserved perception of a market with strong underlying fundamentals, able to weather global and European economic volatility. No. 2 score of the Polish capital, right after London and before Paris, Munich and Berlin, presents an optimistic outlook for developers and investors engaged in the Polish market, as well as those intending to make an entry," said Colin Waddell, Managing Director of CBRE for Poland.
In terms of countries or entire regions, the CBRE survey found that the UK is the most attractive real estate market for investment in Europe for nearly a third (31%) of investors very close to its position in 2010, but up significantly from 16% in 2011. Germany was the second most attractive market, selected by 27% of investors, followed by Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets with 19%.
France is recording lower investor attraction than in 2011, while the proportion of investors choosing Spain as the most attractive market dropped from 9% in 2011 to 3.5% this year. Italy was favored by only 2.5% of respondents. Conversely, the attraction of the (mostly non-euro) Nordic markets increased: chosen by 8% of respondents as the most attractive for real estate investment this year compared with 5% last year.
Peter Damesick, EMEA Chief Economist at CBRE commented - "The increase in the UK's attraction to real estate investors in 2012 can be seen partly as a reaction to the ongoing problems and uncertainty in the euro area. In this context, the high liquidity and 'safe haven' attributes of the UK market appear to have become more attractive. The other most popular markets for investors in 2012 are Germany and CEE. As was the case last year, the attraction of these markets is related to investor perceptions of their strong economic fundamentals."
Source: CBRE
