EURO PROPERTY


especially in the case of retail, there is value to be found from dominant assets in mid-size cities with optimum catchment areas.” JP Morgan analyst Harm Meijer is not quite so bullish. He says: “The rating downgrade confirms our caution in our recent handbook on France. French shopping centres will also experience the prime-versus-secondary theme and we are seeing the first signs of this. We think the average French centre will be over-rented in the next couple of months.”


Olivier Gérard, chief executive of Cushman


& Wakefield France, says that around 80% of deals in 2012 took place in the Paris region, with the most popular sector being office property. But according to research by Savills, office deals accounted for only 54% of the total investment volume with the retail and leisure sectors increasing their share to 18% and 15% respectively. C&W’s Gérard says that one of the largest


categories of investors in 2012 was global insurance companies with European businesses. The next most active were sovereign wealth funds, followed by non-listed companies, then family and private individuals. Foreign investors, mainly those from the US, are quite aggressive in the market and are looking for big-ticket assets, he says. But he adds: “German open-ended funds,


even if there are only three ready to invest, are still pretty aggressive. Then Middle Eastern investors come next, chiefly looking for core CBD product as a long-term investment. “The sovereign funds and insurance


companies have delegated more of their portfolios to the real estate sector than ever


Dior Fashion: Helped attract Azerbaijan’s oil fund to Place Vendôme


before for security reasons. Paris is really stable. There is a big diversity of occupiers. Each year office take-up will be between 2m m2 m2


and 2.5m


, and prime rents have been pretty stable at €750 to €850 per m2


for the past 15 years.”


In the city’s outskirts, assets with good assets to public transport continue to be in


IN ASSOCIATION WITH +


Viva business park, Malakoff


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