European SLB Volume Beats Predictions

Michelle Napoli is editor of Net Lease forum, from which this article is excerpted.

London—Sale-leaseback and single-tenant property sales are on the rise in Europe and there are no signs the trend is likely to end.”There’s been a huge increase in that kind of activity,” says John Knowles, a London-based director in the Europe, Middle East and Africa capital markets group of DTZ, a global real estate services firm. “For the next 12 to 18 months, I don’t see a slowdown.”

About two years ago, DTZ researchers estimated there was approximately 5 billion euros of this kind of sale-leaseback or outsourcing activity annually. They predicted that figure would grow to about 10 billion euros this year and 15 billion euros in 2008. But now, Knowles says, he expects the figures will be more like 15 billion euros this year and 20 billion euros next year. The firms has been “absolutely overwhelmed” with calls from corporations wanting help in monetizing their real estate, he adds.