Real Estate Investments Poised to Reach €3 Billion

19 July 2017

Considering investments made in the first six months of the year and further investments that are already expected to enter Portugal, total real estate investment in the country for the year is expected to come in above two billion euros.  There is also a probability that investments will total nearly three billion euros, breaking previous records. CBRE, an internati0nal consultancy, reached this conclusion in their latest research paper.

During the first six months of the year, Portuguese investors accounted for only 10% of the volume of investment in commercial real estate, though they accounted for 41% of the total number of transactions.

In the office market, the CBRE study points to the growing scarcity, considering the time required to construct a new building, of high-quality office space expected to come online over the next two years. “Only 10,800 square meteres will reach the market in 2017 and, considering the projects under construction, only another 11,000 square meters will be made available in 2018, at the Torre de Lisboa (Fontes Pereira de Melo 41) and at the Espaço 7 Rios,” the report states.

Three shopping centres will open by the end of the year

In the first half of 2017 no new retail and commercial spaces were inaugurated, but three projects are expected to open before the end of the year: the Mar Shopping Algarve, the Designer Outlet Algarve and the Évora Shopping Mall, totalling an area of ​​94,100 square meters.

Investment Market

A total of one billion euros, in 22 transactions, were raised in investments in commercial real estate in Portugal, in line with the amount raised over the same period last year.

The total was leveraged by Blackstone’s sale of Logicor, a pan-European logistics company, to the China Investment Corporation, which included 16 properties in Portugal. Other relevant deals in this period included the sale of two shopping centres, the Forum Viseu and the Forum Coimbra, to the South African REIT Lodestone, as well as the sale of the Vila do Conde Nassica Outlet to Via Outlets, which will integrate the operation into their European portfolio.

Also worthy of mention is the sale of a large real estate portfolio by the Tranquilidade insurance company, consisting of commercial income assets as well as other properties destined for redevelopment or conversion for other uses.

There is currently a significant volume of assets under negotiation or expected to be marketed in the near future, CBRE says, “including two portfolios of shopping centres and two portfolios with several office buildings as well as many other office spaces, logistics operations, supermarkets, hotels and shopping centres.”

Original Story: Diário Imobiliário

Translation: Richard Turner