It is late April and Spain has been in lockdown for six weeks. Jesus Varela, Spain managing partner at law firm Dentons, is discussing the severe impact coronavirus has already had on property portfolios in the country, with much retail trading ground to a halt and owners of empty offices facing a long-term slump in demand.

“Some investors call me and say: ‘We made a mistake. We bought a lot of retail, we bought offices — we should have bought logistics’.

“The only players in the market who call me with much more optimistic approaches are the hedge funds, opportunistic funds and other private equity players.”

As Varela explains, in today’s environment, logistics is regarded as a safe haven, given its apparent resilience to many of the adverse effects stemming from the coronavirus crisis. Nicholas Brinckmann, spokesperson for the management board at asset manager Hansainvest Real Assets, shares the same view. “Logistics as an asset class will most