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Record investment in Nordic property markets in 2005
According to the spring 2006 edition of Nordic Report, 2005 was an extremely active year for the Nordic property markets and several records were broken. In Sweden, transaction volume achieved a new record figure of €13.2bn, up €3.2bn on 2004, nearly half of which concerned properties in the Stockholm area. International investors’ share of the Swedish market rose during the year from 32% to 44%.
In Norway, especially the Oslo area, turnover doubled from 2004 to €5.2bn reaching a new record. The report stated that the surge in interest was primarily in offices in Oslo.
The Finnish property market might also have beaten its record if there had not been a shortage of properties for sale. In 2005 international investors accounted for nearly 50% of the total transaction volume on the Finnish property market. The proportion of indirect owners increased markedly through major investments by unquoted funds. Total transaction volume in 2004 was €3.3bn, and in view of the strong international interest the figure for 2005 could have been even higher. But instead it fell to around €3bn.
“The reduction was solely because there were not enough properties for sale”, states the report. “We predict that international interest will be sustained and that transaction volume will increase in 2006 and 2007. Strong competition between purchasers will continue – not least between international funds.” |
