Christopher Mertlitz, Managing Director, Head of European Investments at W. P. Carey, talked to Property Forum about the environment for property transactions in 2023 and the company’s focus on mission-critical projects in its portfolio.

Allianz Real Estate, acting on behalf of several Allianz Group companies, has entered into a purchase agreement related to a portfolio of five Class A logistics facilities in three European countries in a forward transaction with German logistics leader DHL. Set to complete between Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, the portfolio represents one of Allianz Real Estate’s largest single logistics sector acquisitions, in terms of gross leasable area, to date. In total the five facilities will cover over 200,000 sqm.

The volume of investment transactions recorded in the hotel sector on European markets in the first half of 2022, reached a similar level to last year's. The UK remains the most active market, followed by France, Italy, Spain and Germany, says Walter Herz.

According to Savills, the total investment volume for Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Europe reached €11.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2022, a 130% increase on the same period in 2021 and a record high.

According to a survey conducted by Savills involving real estate investors with total EME assets under management exceeding €500 billion, European multifamily, big box logistics, urban logistics, CBD offices and student housing are the top five sectors that investors are looking to invest in over the next 12 months.

Property Forum sat down with Piotr Trzciński, Head of Poland and Andrew Allen, Global Head of Research, Product Strategy and Development at Savills Investment Management, to talk about the company’s investment strategy in Europe and Poland in particular. They also talked about Savills IM’s ambition to become net zero by 2040 and the way ESG is shaping future developments in the European commercial real estate sector.

Despite the strong recovery of travel demand and the wall of capital looking for opportunities, transaction activity in the EU hotel market in the first half of 2022 remained flat compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, there are five countries that are recording notable growth in transaction activity, says Cushman & Wakefield's European Hotel Market Report for H1 2022.

Any uncertainly around the future of Europe’s economy this year has so far failed to dampen demand for logistics space, with take up in H1 already 12% ahead of last year’s record. According to Savills, this is mainly due to the uplift in take-up of space in the Germany (4,61 milion sqm) and UK (3,93 milion sqm), while Poland (3,83 milion sqm) stands third among analysed countries.

Despite rising costs and rents, the rented residential sector continues to ride high as demand booms and is poised to remain a more lucrative investment opportunity than asset classes such as office or retail. Bonard has spoken to leading real estate specialists to investigate the factors behind the sector’s success.

Prologis Europe has significantly scaled up its urban offering across the continent with more than a million square meters of core logistics space. On behalf of its open-ended vehicle PELF, the company has acquired 128 buildings and 6 developments in key urban gateway locations from last-mile operator Crossbay. The agreed price was €1.585 billion.