From January to March, real estate investment reached 1.500 million euro, the second best quarter ever registered in Portugal, behind the last quarter of 2019 (1.700M).
According to CBRE, 17 investment operations were registered, for a total 42 assets. The highlight goes to the sale of a share of a set of shopping centres (Colombo, Vasco da Gama, CascaiShopping and NorteShopping), which represented about half the trade volume for this period and also the sale of a 10 hotel portfolio and one other 8 office portfolio.
According to CBRE, during the first quarter, retail attracted more than 50% of the investment. The hotel segment concentrated 24% and the office segment 19%, with 75% of investment being international.
Up to €2.500M investment if activity recovers soon
The consultant pointed out that before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, whose first case in Portugal was registered on the 2nd of March, «a significant number of transactions either ongoing or being prepared to be placed on the market was on the pipeline and CBRE’s expectation was that in 2020, the 3.500 million euro investment record registered in 2019 would be beaten once again».
However, the market is now facing uncertainty concerning the crisis’s impact on the economy. CBRE believes that in a scenario of recovery starting within three months, it might be possible «to carry out, until the end of the year, investment operations between 500 and 1.000 million euro, which sets the total investment forecast for 2020 at between 2.000 and 2.500 million euro».