The commercial real estate investment market in Portugal totaled 1.4 billion euros in this first half, with the retail segment adding the largest investment volume, totaling approximately 800 million euros.

Commercial Real Estate Investment in Europe recorded a growth of 2%, totaling 115.4 billion euros, which reaffirms the current positive moment of the property investment market. This confidence was mainly reflected in the office sector, which increased 9%, reaching a market share of 44% in the total volume of investment, due to the closure of large operations (€ 100m). The retail segment, unlike the Portuguese market, stabilized, remaining at 25.8 billion, while the Industrial & Logistics segment fell by 16%.

The real estate market in Lisbon continues to rise along with London, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt or Paris. The prime Yield of the Lisbon office market stands at 4.5%, 6 percentage points above the European average of 3.9%. After a period of four years of compression, they reached a stabilization point during this semester, a situation that could be maintained in the future.

In Portugal, the first half of 2018 was marked by the close of operations in the retail and office segments, which accounted for 91% of the total investment volume. Emblematic asset transactions in the retail and office sector accounted for 71% of total closed transactions, with market performance largely based on portfolio transactions.

Retail

  € 411 million (Sale of the Blackstone portfolio comprising Sintra Retail Park,
  Forum Sintra and Forum Montijo).

  230 million € (Sale of Dolce Vita Tejo).

Offices

  € 375 million (Sale of the Parkda Teixeira Duarte Lagoons to the European Fund Kildare).

Hospitality

  55 million (Sale of Hotel Intercontinental Porto to Asian Group GCP Hospitality).

Portugal's growing international exposure, the maintenance of programs to encourage foreign investment and the excellent performance of the Tourism and Residential sectors have enabled Portugal to capture the attention of a diverse range of international investors. During the first half of 2018, the market remains very much dominated by international real estate investment funds and foreign capital, which accounted for 98% of the total volume of investment transacted.

It should be noted that 75% of the national commercial real estate investment was comprised of operations above 100 million euros, being based on this result the investors with more core profile.

Pedro Valente, from Worx Capital Markets, said: "2018 will be a new record year for the commercial real estate investment market, liquidity levels will continue to be targeted to prime assets and the trend will be towards stabilization of prime yield values. " He also concludes: "Due to the scarcity of products, we see an increase in the activity of the promotion market, directed to projects of offices and residence."