The first quarter of 2022 was dealt a devastating shock by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – despite this, market resilience and historically high levels of dry powder continued to support investor interest in commercial real estate (CRE) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) according to the latest Capital Markets snapshot for the region released by Colliers.

The snapshot nonetheless indicates that in Q1 investor interest in CRE continued to recover from the pandemic, with many investors seeing property as a hedge against rising inflation. Provisional figures for the first quarter suggest a 5 percent rise in volumes from the same quarter of 2021, with rolling 12-month volumes up by 7 percent.

Despite Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February, Poland posted a strong quarter, with €1.5 billion of investment recorded, which is up significantly year on year. However, Colliers expects Western investment to become more selective as the year goes ahead, leaving investors from Central and Eastern Europe to continue their growth trajectory.

“The first quarter's results showed great confidence of investors in the Polish market, which recorded consecutive record-breaking investment transactions in the office and logistics sectors. We are expecting this trend to continue – the second quarter will also abound in large transactions, both in Warsaw and in regional cities,” Piotr Mirowski, Senior Partner, Head of Investment Services at Colliers in Poland, said.

(WBJ)