It came as no surprise that the market for investments in commercial properties in Hamburg was very quiet in the 1st quarter. In the first three months the volume of transactions totalled a mere €170m. Compared with the 1st quarter of the prior year (€1.9bn) – exceptionally strong due to the takeover of alstria by Brookfield Properties – the overall result has contracted by 91 %. Discounting said outlier transaction, the shortfall decreases to 61 %. “Across the nation there is an ongoing process of reassessing prices in the light of the new business environment. However, it would appear that this process is approaching completion so that in the near future investors will be able to plan with greater confidence. Both the positive macro-economic environment and stability on the market for commercial lets offer good investment prospects for the future. I am therefore confident that we will be seeing more transactions in the second half of the year,” says Frank-D. Albers, managing director of Grossmann & Berger, a member of German Property Partners.
Investment market Hamburg in detail:
Note: Since the following figures are based on only 10 transactions, their information value is limited.
- Institutional investors were particularly reluctant to commit funds due to the lack of certainty about the market’s future. Accordingly, no large-volume transactions were noted. The biggest transaction was Deutsche Euroshop’s purchase of additional shares in the Phoenix Center mall in Harburg district.
- With some 42 % of the total market, office real estate was the most-traded class of asset, followed by retail properties at 28 %.
- Accounting for 34 % of the volume traded, developers formed the most active group of buyers. The most active vendors on the market were real estate companies (18 %).
- Due to the ongoing lack of certainty on the market, international investors were holding back. Their share of the transaction volume was 11 %.
- Year on year the prime yields have leapt up: on commercial properties yields grew by 0.9 percentage points to 3.6 %, on offices by 0.9 percentage points to 3.5 % and on industrial and logistics real estate by 0.9 percentage points to 4.2 %. These yields are estimated on the basis of only a small number of real reference cases.
An overview of the top deals and all relevant market figures can be found in the press release for download.
The market survey property investment in Hamburg 2023/Q1 will soon be available to download from our website.
