Italy property investment market: encouraging signs came in the last quarter of 2018 when real estate sales totaled €3.3 billion, the highest quarterly value, although down 9.1% compared to Q4 2017.
During 2018, according to the data gathered by the Prelios Group Market Research Department, the office and retail sectors were the best-performing asset classes, with investments totaling €5.5 billion and representing 65.6% of the transacted volume.
Although the office sector was the most transacted sector at €3.3 billion, the retail sector continued to expand, recording €2.3 billion of investments, driven mainly by the shopping center segment, which delivered €1.1 billion of transactions, an increase of 24.9% yoy. The logistics asset class confirmed its uptrend, capitalizing circa €1 billion while the hospitality sector recorded €700 million of investments. The remaining transactions concerned nursing homes and mixed use properties, as well as other sectors.
At territorial level, the Italian North West macro region recorded the highest number of deals with a total amount of €3.9 billion. It was followed by the Central Italy macro- region with €2.2 billion, while the regions of the North East and South and Islands totaled €1 billion overall. Finally, the amount transacted in “property portfolios” was nearly €1.4 billion.
For the sixth year in a row, international investors confirmed their dominant position on the Italian real estate market, with a total purchase of €5.7 billion, accounting for 67.9% of investments. Inflows from Continental Europe came mainly from insurance and private equity companies, while once again the key market players outside Europe were private equity companies, primarily based in the USA, along with real estate investment companies. National investors represented 32.1% of countrywide transactions, in recovery compared to the end of 2017.