Apartments take record share of European real estate investment in 2020

The rental apartment sector, including student housing, took a record share of European real estate investment by the top 50 institutional property investors in 2020 at nearly 30 percent of the total, according to the latest Insights research report from Real Capital Analytics.

“It is already a cliché, but the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated shifts in commercial real estate markets that were under way pre-pandemic. Five years ago, apartments accounted for just 10 percent of all European acquisition activity by the biggest institutional investors, and the proportion has steadily increased since,” said Tom Leahy, RCA senior director, EMEA analytics.

In part, this was due to Blackstone’s acquisition of the multibillion-pound iQ student housing portfolio in London and Manchester last year. But every year has its big deals, and this simply underlines the depth and breadth of demand