Real estate investment falls 55% in H1

High interest rates, inflation and the Government’s More Housing package have put the brakes on commercial real estate investment in Portugal which has fallen by around 56% since January.

Cushman & Wakefield has closed 27 transactions worth €360 million in a back of the envelope calculation which could change in the coming weeks.
JLL estimates investment of €400 million, a fall of just over 50% on the same period last year when €822 million were invested.
According to C&W the retail segment netted €258 million (x7 on H1 2022), mostly from just one investment, offices (€47 million – down 69% on H1 2022), and logistics (€22 million – down 89% on H1 2022), hotels with €19 million (down 92%) and €13 million in other segments such as health.
JLL says that investment continues to be anchored in retail (60%) as a result of the sale of a portfolio of supermarkets in Q1 of 2023 (Project Amália – a portfolio of Pingo Doce supermarket premises was purchased by LCN Capital Partners for €145 million).
The two real estate consultants say that in H1 2023 there has been a like-for-like fall in real estate investment of 40% which to March (Q1) had around €225 million and involved less than 20 transactions.