Investment market: retail demonstrates resilience
Over the past 12 months, commercial real estate investment in Europe has increased by 10%, despite a more subdued first quarter (-7% compared to Q1 2025). In this context, the retail sector shows a stabilisation in invested volumes year-on-year, while the hotel sector recorded a slight decline of 2% in commitments. Office and logistics stood out with growth of 11% and 7% respectively over the last 12 months.
Retail remains the third-largest sector by investment share in commercial real estate, with €37 billion in Q1 2026, representing 20% of total volumes (compared to 15% in Q1 2022, the lowest point over the past 10 years). The sector ranks behind office (26%) and logistics (24%), while hotels account for 11% of invested volumes.
While the United Kingdom, Germany and France have historically attracted the majority of retail real estate investment in Europe, new dynamics have emerged over the past 12 months. Germany recorded a 17% rebound in investment volumes, while the United Kingdom saw a year-on-year decline of 16%, and France dropped by 30%. At the same time, Italy and Spain moved up the ranking, with investment volumes increasing by 11% and 43% respectively year-on-year, driven by strong interest in the shopping centre segment. Sweden (+75%), the Netherlands (+97%) and Belgium (+131%) also performed strongly, with sustained activity levels in recent quarters.
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Read on for more insight about the various retail segments, the yield evolution and the outlook of the sector.
