Real estate investments are set for a record high this year, experts have said.

Retail real estate investments reached US$2.06 billion in the first half of 2013, making it the most lucrative sector for real estate investors. Retail accounted for about half the investments made over this period. The industry in 2011 reached an annual investment of US$2.04 billion and in 2012 it reached US$2.59 billion.

Investment into the commercial sector was at the US$1.71 billion mark in the first half of this year while the industrial real estate sector received about US$600 million. While, the geographical concentration of the investments is high with up to 85% targeted within Moscow, the trend is slowly moving away from the Russian capital. Around 2 to 2.8 million square meters of shopping malls are due to open across Russia in the next 48 months.

Russian real estate analysts have said that if all planned transactions were to go through, 2013 would be a record year in retail real estate in terms of volume.  

Russia quickly rose to become the number one retail market across Europe last year as Russian consumers' real personal incomes have continued to grow.