The coronavirus crisis has stalled the gains made by Europe’s commercial real estate markets in 2019.

Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate market report has shown that 41 out of the 48 European markets tracked by the consultancy posted no growth in the first quarter of this year, with rental growth and yield compression easing across the continent. Last year Europe experienced annual growth of 3.9 percent across its property sectors, the fastest rate since the GFC.

The office sector emerged with the strongest performance in the first quarter, with rental growth up 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 3.6 percent year-on-year. No office markets registered a fall in rents over the quarter with growth restricted to just a handful of locations. Cushman & Wakefield says that some UK regional office markets, such as Leeds (+6.7 percent) and Edinburgh (+5.7 percent) clearly benefitted from more positive sentiment in the wake of a decisive UK elec