Total sales figures for European commercial property activity hit EUR 28.5 billion in the first three months of the year, up 45 per cent compared to the same period one year ago.
According to figures released by Cushman and Wakefield, investors have remained focussed on core property markets with the UK, France and Germany seeing their share of activity increase from 61 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 65 per cent in the opening three months of this year.
"At the same time however, investors have not been too rocked by macro events in Japan, the Middle East or North Africa and have if anything looked further up the risk curve, albeit still in search of prime property," said David Hutchings, head of European Research at Cushman and Wakefield.
Despite the clear year-on-year increase, activity was down 30.5 per cent on a quarter-by-quarter basis. However, analysts suggest that this was no great surprise as the closing three months of 2010 was the strongest quarter since the first quarter of 2008.