According to Savills Aguirre Newman, the residential rental segment has positioned itself as the second largest real estate investment market in Europe during the first half of 2021. Investment in multifamily has reached 24.1 billion euros on the continent, a figure representing 23% of the total in the real estate sector, only behind the office segment, which reached a total of 29,300 million euros and a 28% share in total real estate investment in Europe.
During the first half of the year, investors have increased their asset portfolios and launched new investment funds specialized in multifamily. Finland (42%), Denmark (34%) or Spain (32%) are some of the countries where the multifamily market has had the greatest presence, exceeding a third of total real estate investment.
In Spain, investment in residential rental reached 1,000 million euros in the first half. Susana Rodríguez, CCO at Savills Aguirre Newman comments that “in line with the rest of Europe, the growth of investment in residential rental in Spain is also fast, although it is still not enough to increase the available supply and satisfy a growing demand for affordable housing ”.
According to the international real estate consultancy, the high demand of the multifamily market in Europe has caused a rapid adjustment of yields. In 2020, prime rents remained at minimum levels with a European average of 3.2%. Given the current attractiveness of this sector, the firm expects new groups of investors to enter the market and for those already established to seek new locations as competition intensifies.
Regarding rents, Savills points out that the increase in demand and the shortage of rental housing have caused a rise in the price of rents in Europe since 2015 of 4.6% per year on average in the 27 cities analyzed by the consultant. In addition, according to the analysis, the price of rents is expected to maintain the upward trend in the main European cities as long as the development of new housing developments does not meet the growing demand.
