Steep growth in multifamily housing investment in Europe could result in it becoming the continent’s dominant real estate sector before too long.

In its Capital Flows into European Multifamily Housing report, CBRE has said that international investors are putting record volumes of capital into residential property in Europe, with €52 billion of cross-border capital committed to European multifamily housing between 2015 and 2018. The figure represents a doubling of cross-border investment volumes into the sector over the last four years. At present the second-largest real estate market in Europe, the consultant says that multifamily may soon become the largest if current investment growth rates continue.

CBRE has charted the origins of money invested into multifamily from 2011 to 2018 and has shown that while European investors are still responsible for the largest share of capital flows, their percentage fell from 67 percent in 2011 to 50 percent in 2018.