Commercial property deal volume rose in the third quarter of 2021 compared with a year ago and approached pre-pandemic deal activity levels, indicating that the European real estate market is now firmly on a post-pandemic recovery.

According to the latest Europe Capital Trends report from Real Capital Analytics (RCA), third quarter European transaction volume climbed to €64.4 billion, a 21 percent increase on the third quarter of 2020, when dealmaking was impeded by government restrictions.

For the year so far, total commercial property sales have reached €202.6 billion, up 8 percent compared to the first nine months of 2020. RCA says they were boosted by industrial and apartment sector sales. However, they remain 5 percent lower than the average for the same period in the years 2015 to 2019.

Across all of Europe, investors bought €41.6 billion of industrial properties in the first nine months of 2021, a total 85 percent higher than the pre-pandem