The most successful real estate investors in 2021 will be those who carefully study the “growing chasm” that has appeared in property markets due to the COVID-19 crisis.

LaSalle Investment Management has said that a “growing chasm” has appeared in real estate between favoured sectors such as logistics and residential, and less favoured property types including retail and office assets. In an annual client report, the manager has warned investors that they must choose assets carefully in order to avoid overpaying in highly competitive sectors, while also taking advantage of mispriced assets as they emerge in the struggling segments of the market.

The manager says that the pandemic has sped up investors’ long-standing process of rebalancing portfolios away from traditional sectors such as office and retail into logistics, residential assets and niche sectors. Office and retail still account for around 72 percent of core portfolios in Europe, according to MSCI d