The final quarter of 2019 saw European office transactions reach a record high, surpassing the previous record by a staggering 30 percent. Six months on, clearly the market is in a very different place. Inevitably, transactions in second quarter 2020 will fall significantly in most markets. But the key question is whether the liquidity that was recorded prior to the crisis will return in third quarter 2020 and beyond and how this will affect office pricing when transactions start to normalize, asks UBS-AM Real Estate & Private Markets’ in its latest research paper, which is the third in the series on the impact of COVID-19 on European office markets.
So far, the anecdotal evidence has been relatively encouraging for a rebound in activity. After the initial lockdowns started, deal flow almost dried up completely. But over the past two months, an increasing number of assets have been brought forward for sale. The types of assets that are coming forward are generally th
