MSCI Real Assets: No sector or market in Europe escapes slowdown for CRE investment by end Q3

European commercial real estate (CRE) registered the seventh consecutive quarter of falling investment in July through September, ensuring no market or sector had escaped the slowdown by the end of the first nine months of 2023, according to the latest Europe Capital Trends report from MSCI Real Assets.

The volume of completed transactions fell 57 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to €32.8 billion ($34.6 billion), the report showed. It was the weakest activity since 2010 and took overall investment in the first nine months of the year to €119.0 billion ($125.4 billion), less than half the level for the same period in 2022. Pending transactions at the start of October, typically a reliable indicator of sales in the final quarter of the year, were the lowest since 2011.

“The exceptionally rapid increase in interest rates meant that property went from keenly priced at the end of 2021 to overpriced by the end of 2022,” said Tom Leahy, head of EMEA