London and Paris maintained their lead as the main markets for office investment in Europe in 2008, according to new research from CB Richard Ellis. The two cities accounted for 36%* of all office transactions completed last year, or one in every three deals. This concentration extended to the market鈥檚 largest deals, with 44% of office deals over EUR 100 mln being done in either London or Paris.
London and Paris maintained their lead as the main markets for office investment in Europe in 2008, according to new research from CB Richard Ellis. The two cities accounted for 36%* of all office transactions completed last year, or one in every three deals. This concentration extended to the market鈥檚 largest deals, with 44% of office deals over EUR 100 mln being done in either London or Paris.
Michael Haddock, director EMEA Research and Consulting at CBRE, said: 'A persistent feature of the European property market is the concentration of investment activity in the top two cities - London and Paris. And this did not change from 2007 to 2008 despite the fall-off in overall activity or the sweeping impact of the global economic downturn.'
Europe's 10 largest markets accounted for 43% of all investment transactions in 2008, effectively retaining their historical control of investment liquidity, even though marked changes in overall activity significantly impacted the shape of the European property market.
In recent years, the composition of Europe鈥檚 top 10 property investment markets has remained very stable. Six of the markets - London, Paris, Stockholm, Madrid, Berlin and Hamburg - have been in the top 10 every year since 2005, including 2008, when change was the dominant force in the property and broader investment markets.
The top 10 cities for office investment last year in Europe accounted for 61% of the total value of office transactions, even more concentrated than activity for the top 10 cities across all sectors.
