The practice of international investors joining forces with German investment managers and other market players is not a new trend. Since at least 2010 — when it became increasingly evident that there was a real estate boom looming on the horizon — investors from Scandinavia and Asia in particular have joined forces with German real estate experts to enter Germany’s real estate market. Towards the end of the 2010s, however, the relevance of this model had declined. But now it is coming back.

There are a number of headwinds blowing towards the UK real estate market. One of them is the massive backlog of planning applications that require evaluation and projects facing national appeals for approval. With such congestion across the board, residential supply is going to be even more constrained than it already is.

Negative sentiment towards Europe’s office markets is being overdone, according to AEW. In its 2023 Mid-year European Outlook report, the manager has said that opinions on the office sector remain negative in Europe primarily due to “extensive media coverage” of poorly performing US office markets, which are skewing perception.

Only a tiny minority of small to medium-sized real estate asset managers believe their portfolios will meet the European Commission’s 2030 Climate Target Plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to at least 55 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Most, if not almost all, investment managers — prodded by their own altruistic motives as well as by the insistence of their investor clientele — have adopted sustainable development and building management policies and practices. But the work of creating sustainable built environments is never done. New challenges as well as new technologies ensure that, to be effective in the long run, any policies and practices put in place need to be as dynamic as possible to adapt to the requirements of an ever changing physical and technical environment.