Investors’ increased appetite for supermarkets and urban retail parks should breathe new life into the segment. Portfolios of this type estimated at 500 million euro are already being negotiated, to which should be added the estimated 190 million euro already traded for this type of assets.
That is the reason why, according to consultant Savills Aguirre Newman, the investment volume traded as traditional product (which excludes High Street retail) should reach, at the end of 2020, between 1.500 and 2.000 million euro. If these expectations are met, the traditional retail investment will be higher this year than it was last year.
This amount will also be boosted by the transaction of 2 shopping centres from intu: Puerto Venecia and intu asturias, already concluded during this year’s first semester. These operations alone represented 765 million euro in terms of investment.
On this new investment trend, Luis Espadas, managing director of the Retail division at Savills Aguirre Newman explained that «given the global situation of uncertainty and the transformation process the retail segment is undergoing, investors seek defensive assets with long-term contracts and good financial solvency. This demand has been met within the food segment where several operators have placed part of their portfolios on the market using the sale & leaseback format».
Nevertheless, the latest report from the consultant "Retail en España" (Retail in Spain) further revealed that a «yield compression is expected within prime food portfolios in Madrid and Barcelona and, despite the lack of references, there is intent to sell and a price adjustment is foreseeable».
The consultant also forecasted that one of the types of retail assets to be more impacted by the mobility restrictions imposed during this period, the high street retail segment, should recover strength during this year’s second semester.
