European Transactions Director Paul Joubert told the Business Immo portal recently that France remains the first country in terms of capital disposition, concentrating 36% of assets by value following its sale of the Triangle of L'Arche of La Défense, an asset of around 37,500 square meters for a price that market specialists place at around €300 million. Investment last year compared to around €600 million of acquisitions in 2008 and €1.2 billion in 2007. One of the more recent signings was a deal to buy the Radisson Blue Hotel in Hamburg for €155 million.

The group acquired two properties in France at end-2009 for a total of €145 million: City One in Lyons for €60 million – and the biggest transaction on the French regional market in 2009 – and an office at 148 Rue de l'Université in Paris from the UK's Hammerson valued at €85 million on behalf of a US discretionary portfolio manager. Its most recent signing in January was a €37 million deal for a retail and office building in a prime location on Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris, earmarked for a pan-European fund.

Joubert said Invesco Real Estate halted investment in December 2007 after completely allocating capital from the funds it manages. It concentrated instead on integrating the team, recruiting, and asset management - renegotiating leases and remarketing some assets. It restarted investment early last year.

"This is for us the moment to be buying even if we continue to note a new tension in prime products in London and especially in Paris," Joubert said. "However this is not the case in the Scandinavian market, in Germany or even in European cities and towns that are smaller in size. Whichever way you look at it, in all the markets that we keep our eye on prices are at the moment below their historical average."

Invesco RE's €17.5 billion AUM places it among the 15 largest real estate managers in the world and in the top five independents. "The particular uniqueness of Invesco Real Estate is to be a fund manager that is independent of any bank network or of an insurance group," Joubert said. "Our activity consists uniquely in providing services for the accounts of third parties and not in trying to gain value for assets owned on our house balance sheet."

The group's two stand-out elements are cross-border capacities and diversification. Invesco is present in 12 countries in Europe through six offices and has been careful to develop pan-European funds with wide mandates in terms of markets and asset type. "Our diversification strategy at the level of risk permits us to benefit from different market timings and to therefore boost the performance of our funds," he said. At the start of the last decade Invesco acquired a portfolio valued at around €5bn in Europe, comprising 47% office, 27% retail, 11% logistic, 9% mixed use and 6% hotel real estate.