The total transaction volume for 2016 was EUR 7.1 billion, which is a new Finnish record. This time, the all-time high volume was reached during a period of relatively slow economic growth. As in recent years, the majority of buyers were domestic investors, while during the previous peak years, the growth in volume was largely a result of international investors operating at high levels of leverage.

In addition, a large part of the volume was this time attributable to residential properties, with transactions of more than EUR 2.7 billion. For the first time in the Finnish real estate investment market, residential property transactions exceeded the amount of office or retail property transactions.

“At the moment, there is no reason to doubt that the record pace in the real estate investment market will continue in 2017. In a low interest rate environment, real estate is seen as a very attractive investment option, to which many investors are willing to direct more capital. In addition, international investors have increasingly begun to show more interest in the Finnish market. In our view, several international investors are currently actively searching for suitable properties in Finland, and we may see more transactions involving foreign players this year than the year before”, says Antti Louko.