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.

ECE has launched its inaugural European residential real estate fund and successfully raised equity commitments from renowned institutional investors, including two large highly reputable German insurance groups. With the capital raised in the first closing, the fund plans the purchase of investments with a volume of more than €350 million. Further capital commitments from institutional investors will be raised in the coming months. The strategic partner for the residential build-to-rent investments of institutional investors in the newly launched fund is the specialized Group company ECE Living. It is supported in concept and product design as well as in capital raising by the investment banking boutique Victoria Partners.

Demand for logistics real estate is not slowing in Europe, driving significant upward price growth. This development is further fuelled by increased construction and financing costs in the new-build segment. Overall, 70% of the examined European markets registered substantial growth since the end of the second half of 2021, whereas 30% saw no change in rent levels. The remarkable thing is that no region reported negative rental growth. These are some of the findings Garbe Research presented in its latest Garbe Pyramid Map, the 2022 mid-year update of the company’s yield and rent map for the 122 most important logistics real estate submarkets in 23 European countries.

According to Savills latest research, take-up in the European office market in H1 2022 reached 4.3 million sqm, 11% above the five-year H1 average.

Around 120,000 sqm of retail projects are slated for delivery in the second half of 2022, although some projects could be delayed until the first part of 2023, especially if the developers meet certain difficulties with the construction or leasing process, according to real estate consultancy Colliers.