Real estate market picks up
Property investors are looking to riskier markets such as Spain and emerging Europe, and shunning safer prime European commercial real estate, pushing up investment volumes and prices, research by CB Richard Ellis has shown. Direct investment in prime European commercial property hit €26.7bn in the first-quarter, up 26 per cent on the year. In the UK, office, retail and industrial properties all saw a pick-up in capital growth in March, and for the first time in a year it was the retail sector that saw the biggest improvement. Central London office rents rose 1.5 per cent.