Among the cities of Europe with the highest demand for commercial real estate in the third trimester of 2016, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Madrid and Budapest should be included, due especially to the initiatives of the Central European Bank, which facilitated the injection of liquid funds into the European markets.
As regards occupation, RICS highlights the result obtained by the Hungarian and Portuguese markets, emphasizing the ‘considerable’ rates of growth in the office segment in the latter, as opposed to the industrial and logistics sector.
At present, in Portugal, property owners attribute fewer incentives to occupants, in offices as in retail, in the last nine consecutive reports. Consequently, the next twelve months should see an increase in rents in all office zones of the Lisbon market, especially in the PRIME CBD, which has the best forecasts, with increases in the order of 7%. The study also notes that the occupier confidence levels are positive at 33p.p. in the respective trimester, slightly lower than the similar period, which registered 34 p.p.
In accordance with 42% of those surveyed by RICS, during the third trimester, there was continuing strong demand for commercial assets in Portugal on the part of foreign investors, Lisbon being perceived as one of the capitals with the most competitive assets pricewise, on a par with Athens.
Improvement in access to credit is also seen as a ‘very positive’ sign for the real estate market, in that the latter is less limited on the financial market.
In the next twelve months, an increase in the valorisation of capital is to be expected in all segments of commercial real estate, especially in the prime office space sector, where the supply of property for sale has decreased equally in retail as in offices, as opposed to the industrial and logistics sector, which has slightly increased.
Photo: Joaquim Manços