After romancing Paris, South Korean real estate investors are venturing into Central and Eastern Europe

Paris benefited from Brexit-induced uncertainty dampening sentiment on London and a surge in South Korean investment

Korean commercial property investors are now looking further afield in Europe, although their enthusiasm might wane as yields contract across the continent

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A tightrope walker performs above the business district of La Defense on the outskirts of Paris on November 22. The district has begun to attract robust foreign investment in real estate, including from South Korean investors. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:30pm, 13 Jan 2020Updated: 5:04am, 14 Jan 2020

Europe’s commercial property investment market slowed noticeably last year, mainly because of the debilitating uncertainty surrounding the timing and terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

In the first three-quarters of 2019, transaction volumes in Europe were down 13 per cent year on year, compared with a China-fuelled 10 per cent increase in the Asia-Pacific region, data from property adviser JLL shows.

However, last year was a bumper one for Paris. Not only was the French capital the world’s second most actively traded commercial property market in the first nine months of the year, it was also the largest recipient of cross-border investment, which has accounted for more than 40 per cent of global transactions over the past several years, according to JLL.

Paris would not have performed half as strongly had it not been for the surge in investment from South Korea, now the largest source of foreign investment in France’s property market.

In the first three-quarters of last year, Korean buyers acquired US$4.5 billion of French commercial real estate assets, all of them in the office sector, JLL notes.

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