New high watermark for Swedish investment volumes as new entrants’ flock
This is a significant increase on the previous high witnessed in 2016 (SEK 203 billion/ €19.24 billion) and a 35% surge on 2018’s figures. Residential properties, followed by offices, made up the largest proportion of transactions with warehouse, industrial and logistics assets trading for SEK 32 billion (€3.03 billion), a further record.
Peter Wiman, Head of Research, Savills in Sweden, explains:
“We expect 2020 to continue to see a significant amount of real estate transactions. Periods that have included a large number of portfolio transactions are usually followed by a transaction-intensive period in order to streamline investors’ portfolios. The amount of domestic and non-domestic money looking to be deployed into real estate remains high and the weak Swedish Krona may attract even more foreign capital.”
Foreign investors accounted for 35% of the total transaction volume, acquiring property worth almost SEK 78 billion (€7.39 billion), which exceeded the previous high for this investor group (SEK 75 billion / €7.11 billion) set in 2007.
Niklas Zuckerman, Head of Investment at Savills in Sweden, added:
“International investors have been active across the real estate sector and all along the risk curve. We are seeing increasing interest from Asia and expect to see a number of new players enter the Swedish market in 2020. Many of those who have sold property assets so far are Swedish institutions who were overexposed to real estate and construction and development companies making use of a strong market to sell recently completed projects or those still under development.”
