Commercial real estate investment totalled €8.4 billion in 2009, a decline of 44%. However, an increase was seen towards the end of the year, with investment reaching €3.5 billion in the fourth quarter, a rise of 62% from the third quarter. Some €2.6 billion of total was invested in offices and €600 million in retail premises in the fourth quarter, but the markets for warehouses and industrial buildings are still not moving. A high number of deals were recorded at the end of 2009, mainly for offices, including 29 single asset transactions for more than €40 million, of which 24 were for office, including five of more than €100 million in the Paris Ile-de-France region. This reflects improved access to financing for major operations.

Investment in Ile-de-France rose steadily over the year to reach €2.6 billion in 4Q09, up from a low point of €650 million in 1Q09. Deals were mostly being driven by French and German players, with US and UK investors still generally holding back, although a few were involved in significant deals towards the end of the year. Prime office yields in Ile-de-France continued to fall in the fourth quarter and the decline has now spread to most districts, with prime yields in the Western Crescent and Inner Rim districts slipping below 7%.

Outside Paris, commercial real estate investment also picked up in fourth quarter, reaching €800 million, an increase of 160% from the third quarter. Lyon saw investment rise to more than €200 million, matching the total recorded over the first nine months of the year. Prime office yields are also declining in some regions, although the trend is not nearly as widespread as in Ile-de-France. Declines in yields have focused on Lyon, where the Auréalys building in Lyon Part Dieu was sold at a yield of 6.5%, and on Strasbourg, where a building in Schiltigheim sold at a yield of 7.5%.