Savills speaks of an all-time annual record in direct investment, exceeding €15.2 billion, 22% more than the mark recorded in 2018 with €12.5 billion and 27% above the 2021 total. This analysis takes into account individual asset transactions and real estate portfolios in the residential and tertiary sector, excluding land and corporate transactions.
Most of the investment was registered up to the end of the third quarter, while between October and December around 1,400 million euros have been registered, 11% of the annual total, compared to the 27% average of the last five years for this period of the year.
According to Gonzalo Ladrón de Guevara, Executive Director of Capital Markets at Savills, "it has been an atypical record year due to the performance of the last quarter, in which we have continued to see transactions because, unlike other cycles, prices are correcting more quickly as the type of property has changed, now mainly in the hands of institutional investors. For 2023, the first half of the year will still be a wait & see period, but there will continue to be a crossover of deals in the sectors with the most interest and where demand is strongest. It will be in the second half that the market will resume more dynamic activity".
Investment funds have maintained their leadership in market share, with 67% of total direct investment in 2022, followed by insurance companies, which have increased their market share compared to 2021, from 3% to 10%, and real estate companies, with a 9% market share similar to last year. Socimis, with a 7% share of the total this year, and private investors, with 6%, have maintained their market share compared to last year.
International investors continued to account for the largest share of capital invested in real estate assets in Spain, although with a smaller difference than in previous years, with 57% of the total compared to 43% from domestic sources. Capital from Europe and the United States led the way in cross-border investment volume in 2022, accounting for 48% and 36% respectively.
By segments, the segment with the highest participation was multifamily, with 3.3 billion euros and 24% more than last year, which places it at a record level in the historical series, consolidating the strong growth trend of the last five years. This segment was also the one with the highest participation in the last quarter of the year, with 573 million euros between October and December.
Student residences also broke investment records, which with €1,266 million exceeded the 2017 market peak by 46% driven by the transaction of the largest portfolio in Spain, acquired by the Dutch pension fund PGGM.
The office segment was the second largest direct investment segment with more than €2.5 billion, in line with last year's figure. Logistics and hotels exceeded the average levels of the last five years, with more than 2,000 million euros in both cases after breaking investment records in 2021.
In retail, 2022 stands out for the return of shopping centre mega-operations, which has boosted the volume of investment to more than €1.55 billion. Premises in the bank branches sub-segment reached €2,340 million with the portfolios transacted by Banco Santander and BBVA, which with €1,987 million was the largest real estate transaction of the year in Spain in 2022.
