“The commercial real estate market is red-hot at the moment. There are buyers for almost all kinds of objects and we see many new record prices” says Mikael Söderlundh, Head of Research and partner at Pangea Property Partners.
 
The Nordic transaction market grew with 36 percent during 2015 compared to the previous year, according to Pangea. The growth was especially strong in Norway and Denmark, where the transaction volumes more than doubled. Finland also noted a large growth of 30 percent. In Sweden the transaction volume decreased somewhat to 15.5 billion euro during 2015, but it is continuously the single strongest market in the Nordics.
 
For the Nordics as a whole the transaction volume of 2015 beats the previous record years 2006 and 2007. New record volumes have been noted in Norway and Finland too.
 
The strong transaction market is driven by an increased interest from international real estate investors. Foreign investors accounted for approximately 35 percent of the turnover during 2015, which is the highest level since the financial crisis. Six of the ten largest deals had a foreign buyer.
 
“The Nordics is an attractive market for international real estate investor thanks to good liquidity and high transparency. During the most recent years the Nordics has accounted for 13-15 percent of the total transaction volume in Europe, and that number can increase in 2015” says Mikael Söderlundh.
 
Record low rents and a strong demand from investors have caused a further decrease in the yield. The most attractive objects are today purchased at a yield below 4 percent within the office, retail and hotel segments.
 
“The macroeconomic climate is beneficial for current properties, which is evident in the record high turnover. We expect the high transaction activity to remain through 2016 with considerable capital flow to the Nordic real estate market” says Bård Bjølgerud, CEO and partner at Pangea Property Partners.
Pangea has carried through approximately 50 deals through the years, with a property value just under €7 billion, which by far makes it the company’s most active year yet.

 A big event for us during 2015 was also when we opened our London office to even better assist our international customers” says Bård Bjølgerud.