Investor spending on apartment and industrial properties combined took a greater value share of European commercial property transactions than office assets for the first time in 2020, buttressing overall deal volume, Real Capital Analytics’ European Capital Trends 2020 report shows. The pandemic-induced shift to working from home raised questions for investors over the future of office assets, and property transactions in the sector fell by more than a third year-on-year. Offices are still, however, the single largest sector by total deal volume.
Total European investment volume fell 27 percent year-on-year to slightly under €255 billion ($309 billion) in 2020, but deals in the fourth quarter plummeted to €75.8 billion ($92 billion), down 44 percent compared with the market’s all-time peak in fourth quarter 2019.
Cross-border capital flows, both intra-regional and from investors in Asia Pacific and North America, retreated across Europe as travel rest
