Commercial property investment activity in Scotland hit £2.395m last year – a 12.6% uplift on the five-year average of £2.127bn, according to the latest data from Savills.
However, it was a year of two halves with 81% of the total investment activity in Scotland completing before the end of June. Activity in H2 2022 was down 310% on the same period in 2021.
Stuart Orr, investment director at Savills in Glasgow, said: “The overarching approach of investors in Scotland at the beginning of this year remains ‘wait and see’. Investors need more certainty in the economic outlook to be confident in their ability to underwrite new deals, albeit the shocks to the market that followed the mini-budget are easing.
“With an expectation that inflation has peaked, and interest rates are likely to stabilise further, sentiment is improving. There remains a sizable amount of capital that investors will be keen to deploy over the course of the year, as holding large cash balances indefinitely is not a viable strategy in this inflationary environment.”
