Home ownership in Europe is becoming increasingly challenging — not because of a lack of willingness to become a homeowner, but because young people just can’t buy a home. Global competition, urbanisation, demographics and government policy are some of the guilty parties.
As Irish rock band U2 begins a new world tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1987 release of its landmark The Joshua Tree album, it’s interesting to reflect on how real estate markets have evolved over that period and on current market conditions.
You know what they say about property investment; “location, location, location.” Well, here’s another mantra with an l-word; “logistics, logistics, logistics.”
Finding the right level of leverage for a property or portfolio is a question tackled by investors and managers every time a property is acquired. Some investors come down on the side of “no leverage is good leverage” while others are happy to load on as much debt as banks and debt funds will give them.
The Warsaw office market continues to grow, in terms both of new developments being delivered and of new lease agreements taking up much of the additional space. Q1 2017 numbers from JLL and other participants in the Polish Office Research Forum show that 10 buildings with total space of 84,200 square metres were delivered to market in the first quarter and that lease agreements were signed for a total of 194,000 square metres, up 36 percent on Q1 2016.
The largest fund closed recently was by Omni Partners, raising £340 million (€390 million) for Omni Secured Lending Fund III. The value-added real estate fund launched in May 2016.
New research from Savills has given a Top 10 list of European cities for hotel investment, with Dublin, Milan and Madrid taking the first three positions.
The International Construction Market Survey 2017 from Turner & Townsend shows that New York City, San Francisco, Zurich, Hong Kong and London top the league table of the most expensive places to build.
Investment volume numbers for Q1 2017 from the various usual sources all point to a substantially lower year-on-year level for Europe as a whole.
Real Capital Analytics’ European commercial real estate investment report for Q1 2017 gave the usual broad parameters for the main trends and activities in the quarter but here’s a little extra detail.
Since 2007, France has offered a tax-exempt collective investment fund vehicle for real estate that is suited to long-term investments.
Fears earlier this year, following the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the election in the United States of president Trump, that mainland Europe could also catch the “populism” virus have been assuaged.