The European real estate market has moved on to a different level over the past few months. The signs are many, varied and, as is often the case when the market becomes excessively liquid, seemingly contradictory. The capital markets have re-discovered volatility once again. This time, the trigger happened to be concerns over China’s slowing economy.

Then there is the growing concern that some of the froth may be coming off the market. That, perhaps, some of the excessive investor demand that we have all seen recently isn’t as “sticky”, or as wedded to real estate, as was once expected. It’s partly a function of the way that pricing has continued to move at the prime end of the market and partly the effect of a variety of domestic issues on the international scene. Take the case of Taiwanese and Malaysian investors who, between them, invested directly around $7 billion (€6.3 billion) in European real estate over the past couple of years. In Taiwan, the government