Turbulence has dominated the global economic and geopolitical landscape in the past couple of months, and so it comes as no surprise that the year ahead may carry more uncertainty than the European real estate markets have set out for.

The latest INREV Market Insights reflects this outlook, revealing that investor sentiment across the board has declined in recent months, and sensitivity to risk amongst investors has increased significantly.

The picture is not all bleak, however, as market performance showed further signs of improvement in the fourth quarter of 2024, and it is expected that this decoupling between deteriorating sentiment and improving performance as transactional markets open up further may well continue, at least for now.

At times of unprecedented uncertainty, the opportunity is also there.

A reprisal in retail sector performance

Until very recently, investment into the retail sector has trailed behind tai