Real estate has had a really good run during the past few years. In fact, nearly all major markets are now at or over their pre-crisis peaks. Despite confidence in the stability of real estate as an asset class — it took the worst that the universe had to throw at it during the recession and came back stronger than ever — investors are beginning to get jittery.
When Russia won the bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup nearly seven years ago, the world drew a sharp intake of breath as the scale of the improvements needed for internal transport, infrastructure and host city hotel-room capacity became apparent — not to mention the daunting task of constructing 12 stadiums across 11 cities, separated by an average distance of 640 kilometres.
The revolutionary structural change that is taking place in the retail sector worldwide has also reached the shopping centre market in Germany. With rising purchase prices and the effect of Amazon on everyday life, it is not getting any easier for institutional and private investors to generate suitable returns on German shopping centres.
Predicting the outcome of post-Brexit policy from the current negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom is a challenge. As a result, it has been difficult to gauge whether UK real estate — traditionally, a safe sector — will continue to provide the same upside for investors. However, investors can turn to the investment opportunities in continental Europe, where the real estate market has been supported by steady economic growth.
Despite concerns about “forests of cranes” and “toppy” real estate markets, investors continue to see Spain as a good source of opportunity.
According to H1 2017 European hotel investment data from CBRE, Spain was the outstanding market in the first half, seeing a 228 percent year-on-year increase in transaction activity and taking H1 2017 investment volume there to more than €2 billion.
Germany has been a primary market for investors’ capital this year.
Back in 1985, I worked in an office that was fuelled by the wonderful fumes of correcting fluid and the flimsiness of carbon paper. One day a rumour began to spread that the company had bought a computer, but that was OK.
AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets’ 20,439-square-metre Assembly London mixed-use urban campus redevelopment in London’s Hammersmith district includes a landmark public art project by Alexander Chinneck that gives the impression that the building is cracking in two.
More than 40 years ago, there was a character on the American comedy show Saturday Night Live, played by comedian, author and improvisational actor Don Novello, called Father Guido Sarducci.