Real Capital Analytics (RCA) says that investment in European commercial real estate slowed in the first half of 2018 as sovereign wealth funds and U.S. institutions scaled back their direct property acquisitions.

Transactions completed between January and June totalled €109.8 billion, a 19 percent decline from the same period in 2017. Europe’s two most active markets, the United Kingdom and Germany, recorded declines in investment volumes of 11 percent and 31 percent, respectively, in the first half, according to RCA. The countries accounted for 48 percent of total investment activity in Europe. No sector escaped the slowdown, which affected 14 of Europe’s 20 most active national markets.

Tom Leahy, RCA’s senior director of EMEA analytics, says that slowdown was partly down to sovereign wealth funds recording their weakest investment levels since 2010. Sovereign wealth funds accounted for 0.2 percent of Europe’s total investment volumes in the first half of