Real estate investment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) reached EUR 5.3 bn in the first six months of the year, largely fuelled by strong performances in Moscow and Warsaw, according to new research by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). This figure brings the year-to-date investment volume in the region close to the full year level reached in 2010 (EUR 5.6 bn).

'Markets with strong prime fundamentals have seen a significant uptick in activity,' said Patrick O’Gorman, director of CBRE's CEE Capital Markets team. ‘The level of activity we are currently registering is close to that registered in H1 2006.'

Jos Tromp, head of CBRE's CEE Research and Consultancy department, noted however that investment growth has been limited to the prime segment. ‘This means core assets with strong prime fundamentals change hands, but investors remain wary of secondary locations where properties are still much more difficult to trade,' Tromp said.

Russia in particular is showing strong recovery with the market recording roughly EUR 1.8 bn of deals in the first half of 2011, compared with EUR 2.2 bn for the whole of 2010.