Volatile currencies. Government elections and referendums. Unfamiliar regulatory and tax regimes. Brexit. All good reasons for concern when it comes to institutional investors allocating capital to investments in European real estate. While logic dictates that these considerations might force institutions to adopt “wait-and-see” modes, the last two years have seen investors from all over the world, particularly the United States and Asia, increase their allocations to European real estate.

The total value of global real estate assets under management reached €2.4 trillion in 2016, up 20.1 percent on the €2 trillion peak achieved the previous year, according to a joint report by INREV, ANREV and NCREIF, based on a survey of 177 global fund managers, 50.8 percent of which were from Europe.

But despite the growing property portfolios, the term “distressed purchaser” has emerged to describe the plethora of institutions circling core European real estate markets