Across Europe, markets have stabilized as the impact of COVID-19 on logistics real estate has begun to dissipate, with strong investor demand for the sector driving yield compression. The rent growth outlook has become more positive as markets have steadied and supply-side constraints have remained intact, driven by low levels of speculative development in most continental European countries. Land scarcity is also affecting rent growth.  Prologis published its third-quarter global earnings announcement along with its European and Central European performance update.

There was a monumental €26 billion (£23.5 billion) investment into the European data centre sector for the first half of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19, according to a report by Knight Frank in partnership with DC Byte. This is over four times the $5 billion annual average figure and a colossal increase on last year’s $2 billion investment volumes. Take-up in H1 2020 was also 50% higher year-on-year at 282MW.

According to Savills’ latest research, Europe will see an additional 11.6 million sqm of warehouse demand due to the manufacturing sector by the end of 2022, based on Capital Economics forecasts data.

According to the latest insights from Colliers International, investment activity in commercial property in Europe is expected to rebound to reach €100 billion in Q4, following a robust turn-around in larger, post-COVID deals in Q3. This would take investment volumes for the whole year to around €270 billion, only 14 per cent down on activity in 2019, provided smoother waters prevail and the market isn’t further shocked by external geo-political or macro-economic factors.

Fifth Wall, the largest venture capital firm focused on real estate technology, has partnered with BNP Paribas Real Estate to launch its business in Europe with the Fifth Wall Real Estate Technology European Fund, its first European proptech fund. The California-based company founded in 2016 has over $1.2 billion under management, raised from industry stakeholders via several funds.

CTP successfully issued a debut green bond for €650 million on 1 October 2020. CTP’s inaugural green bonds became the largest debut issuance by a CEE real estate company.  The bonds received a strong reception from investors and were several times oversubscribed with a peak order book in excess of €2 billion.

European markets with low levels of existing flexible workspace have seen the greatest growth in new flex operations over the first half of 2020, according to the latest flexible workspace report by Colliers International.

According to Savills, the impact of the pandemic is set to accelerate online retail penetration by an average of one year and, in turn, drive demand for prime logistics space in Europe.

A new report from Savills indicates that an integrated omnichannel strategy will lead the way as the European retail sector returns to a new normal.

Prologis has launched its Essentials Marketplace for Europe, a procurement tool that saves customers time when setting up, expanding or upgrading their operations. This online platform offers a raft of key warehouse interior products and fully managed instalment processes.