Russia and France saw available space continue to rise whilst in Russia occupier demand continued to increase, albeit at a slower pace, in France occupier demand declined. Poland’s absence from the top of the rankings is notable and comes on the back of sub-par economic growth performance. Available space continues to increase which the report says is contributing to a slightly softer rental picture.
The survey indicates that signs of stress are spreading from the periphery to other markets. Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, France and Italy in particular showed signs of distress during this quarter of the year, with both sentiment and activity levels suffering on the back of elevated uncertainty.
The investment market in Poland, influenced by the weakness of its zloty, lost momentum with enquiries and capital value expectations easing a little following a couple of years of strong gains.
The re-emergence of the euro crisis allied to generally weaker economic numbers has clearly taken its toll on much of the real estate world. It remains to be seen whether they can continue to buck the more gloomy trend if the macro data remains disappointing,’ said Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist.
In the rest of the world, following on from strong first quarter results, the commercial real estate market in North America and Canada has maintained its more positive mood in both occupier and investor markets despite the global economic slowdown. China and Hong Kong also appear to have relatively resilient occupier markets for the time being.
