Institutional real estate investors could be excused for feeling battered and bruised after the experiences of the past two years and for being nervous over what the future may bring. We believe, however, that natural caution should not stand in the way of what are likely to be great investment opportunities in 2010, both continuing in the United Kingdom and as continental European markets near a key turning point.
The real estate story of the credit crisis, so far, has been the dramatic repricing in the United Kingdom, with values falling somewhere between 55 percent and 60 percent peak-to-trough, but, as this market has stabilised and prime yields have compressed from last summer onwards, the crossover with less punch-drunk, though still weak, continental European markets is now approaching.
We shouldn’t underestimate the pain that some investors have been put through — in the United Kingdom, in particular. The largely yield