Commercial property sector confirms “record year”
As predicted, Portugal’s commercial property sector has registered its “best year ever”, with investments reaching a record €1.9 billion in 2015.
What is even more impressive is that the number doesn’t include major deals like the purchase of Vilamoura or Lisbon’s shopping mall, Monumental – together worth hundreds of millions of euros.
“Those are debt purchase operations and aren’t included in our analyses,” explained Eric Van Leuven, general director of real estate specialists Cushman & Wakefield, in Lisbon this week.
Still, the remaining property deals made 2015 a record-breaking year, “much better than 2007 (€1.2 billion) and not even comparable to 2010 and 2011”.
Further data shows that most of the money invested came from foreigners (90%), and even the remaining 10% of Portuguese investments was “strongly backed by foreign money”.
American investors account for most of the investments, such as the purchase of the Almada Forum and Forum Montijo shopping centres, said Marta Esteves Costa, C&W’s head of research in Portugal. The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) also took over 50% of the Allegro mall in Setúbal.
In total, the retail sector accounted for 65% of commercial property investment, followed by the purchase of buildings for offices (20%) and hotels (8%).
Source:: http://portugalresident.com/