Savills Investment Management transacted €3.9 billion of property in Europe last year out of a total of €5 billion, the firm said today.
The €5 billion total was split evenly between sales and purchases and the firm said the UK and Germany were the most active markets for the firm, with €1.2 billion of deals in each country.
Total transactions have been growing since 2014 when the firm, then Cordea Savills, transacted €2.1 billion in Europe, and then a total of €3.4 billion in 2015.
Savills, which has about €17 billion of assets under management, said it currently has €1.2 billion available to invest in Europe and Asia this year.
Kiran Patel, chief investment officer at the firm, said European real estate markets “continued to perform strongly” towards the end of 2016, with improving fundamentals and further yield compression.
The political and long-term economic outlook were pushing investors towards defensive core segments, and Patel urged investors who might be tempted to take more risk, to resist chasing yield.
“Lower yields may tempt some investors to move further up the risk curve and outside their defined fund style. But we strongly advise investors to consider the intrinsic value of an asset rather than chase yields.”
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