European commercial real estate activity slowed during the third quarter of 2010. New figures released by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) show that transactions recorded in the period were down slightly to EUR 23.1 billion, compared to the EUR 24.6 billion recorded in the second quarter of the year.
However, there was a healthy increase seen on the year-on-year transaction levels, with the volume of sales 24 per cent up on the same period of 2009. Despite this, CBRE claims that economic uncertainty and government austerity measures were to blame for the lull in activity.
One of the regions which continued to see strong growth in real estate investment turnover in during the period was Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This was driven by rising confidence in the Polish market. The country accounted for more than half of the regional total.
"We have been predicting the strong recovery of the Polish market throughout this year. Poland was the only European country to avoid recession and, at the beginning of the year, real estate pricing did not reflect the fact that Poland is now a core market for many investors," said Jonathan Hull, head of EMEA capital markets at CBRE.