Property deals in European Union rise by 15% in Q1 2010
Property investment deals in the European Union, for the first quarter of 2010, accounted for a total of 13.4 billion euro, or the equivalent of a 15 per cent increase compared to figures from the first three months of 2009, research from PropertyEU revealed on April 8 2010.Transactions in the retail sector significantly outperformed those in the office segment in the first quarter, the report says.The retail sector's substantial increase of 5.2 billion euro was boosted, in part, by Dutch investment trust Corio's acquisition in March of a portfolio of operational shopping centres and shopping centre developments from developer-owner Multi Corporation for 1.3 billion euro.Both companies agreed that Corio would acquire four active retail centres in Germany, Spain and Portugal and another retail centre under construction, again, in Germany.The second most lucrative deal, which occurred in the first quarter, was Unibail-Rodamco's purchase of Simon Ivanhoe's portfolio of shopping centres in France and Poland, worth about 715 million euro, in February.According to the website of PropertyEU, the site was established in 2006 to provide insight on financing and investment in the latest important deals in Europe, investors from North America, the UK and elsewhere.The research follows investment deals exceeding 20 million euro in value, for which the financial details are known.