Savills: Cross border buyers return to European offices
According to Savills latest research, there is a revival in the volume of cross border buyers of European offices. French SCPIs remain active in UK regional cities, have expanded into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and are looking at the Nordics in search of higher yields. Norwegian (+297%), Japanese (+264%), UAE (+51%), Czech (+61%) and Spanish (+27%) buyers all marked notable increases against their respective five-year average levels of office investment during 2025, and these buyer pools continue to be active in 2026.
Savills notes that banks remain keen to lend against high quality CBD offices, which is gradually improving liquidity for larger lot-size transactions. Spanish office investment rose to over €1bn during Q1 2026 following the sale of the Edificio Estel office building in Barcelona by Bain Capital and Freo Group to InmoCaixa, which Savills advised on. In Paris, the sale of 83-85 Avenue Marceau to Hines for €243 million is further evidence of improving market liquidity.
During Q1 2026, average prime European office yields held stable at 4.9%. Bucharest moved in by 20 bps, Barcelona, Madrid and Manchester moved in by 25 bps, while Prague moved out by 10 bps.
Mike Barnes, European Office Research Director at Savills, says: “Overall, the occupational fundamentals remain attractive for investors as average prime office rents rose by over 4% last year and we anticipate a further growth of 3.7% this year, reflecting an undersupply of good quality stock. Higher steel prices - on top of already existing tariffs - will likely push back the development pipeline until well into 2027, as developer margins are squeezed.”
James Burke, Director, Global Cross Border Investment at Savills, says: “According to RCA data, over €3 billion of office stock across continental Europe was acquired for redevelopment during 2025, the strongest year since 2021.
“Across offices, we are seeing intra-European buyers being particularly active and we are starting to observe an increase in outbound German institutional capital to further deepen the buyer pool.”
