Urbanisation is set to slow down in Europe’s major cities, as the trend towards suburbanisation engulfs the continent.

Green Street has said that government policy and migration from city centres during the COVID-19 crisis have stalled urbanisation, leading to the outer suburbs of metropolises such as London and Paris performing relatively better than urban centres from a residential land-value perspective over the foreseeable future. However, the advisory firm still expects big cities to attract and retain human capital, on a net basis, at the expense of provincial towns.

Lifestyle choices, based on the need for more housing space and lower work commuting frequency, have already resulted in an outflow of people from city centres. If this trend continues, then performance of residential and retail real estate in city centres will likely lag suburban locales.

At the same time, governments are expected to raise taxes to deal with the ballooning debt built up dur