Research Reports

Data centers are among the fastest-growing and most impactful real asset investments today. In 2025, data centers operators can choose to complete either the GRESB Real Estate or Infrastructure Assessment. This decision hinges on careful consideration of factors such as investment approach, materiality, peer group selection, and data sharing requirements.

This white paper explores current participation trends, scoring insights, and highlights from the GRESB Benchmarks and provides detailed guidance on selecting the most appropriate assessment in 2025. It also sheds light on GRESB’s ongoing efforts to address the unique characteristics and sustainability challenges of data centers.

The Swiss economy has shown resilience amid global challenges, such as high inflation and rising geopolitical tensions and expected to grow in 2025. The lowering of interest rates over the past year has brought momentum back to the Swiss real estate market. Residential and commercial segments remain robust, driven by high immigration and structural shifts. The outlook for 2025 is positive across rental, office, retail, logistics, and hotel sectors.

This report outlines the evolution of private market investment in alternative real estate sectors. It discusses how some shared characteristics, previously distinguishing them from the primary sectors, are in some instances becoming somewhat less relevant. Today alternatives are not just targets for value-add and opportunistic strategies. Their role in core portfolios will therefore also be explored.

For real estate, 2025 is beginning on a somewhat positive note - property has repriced (or is still repricing), short-term interest rates have fallen from their 2023 peaks, and bid-ask spreads have narrowed.

The U.S. economy wrapped up 2024 strong, with 2.5% GDP growth, 1.4% job growth, inflation under 3% and unemployment at 4.1%. However, the outlook is clouded by uncertainty around the Trump 2.0 agenda, raising risks of higher deficits, inflation, and interest rates.

Despite ongoing uncertainty, real retail sales in the Eurozone are projected to grow modestly at 1.7% p.a., outpacing both 1.4% p.a. real GDP and 1.0% p.a. real disposable income growth over the 2025-29 period.

In this second installment of our Artificial Intelligence & Real Estate Series, we expand on the framework introduced last year that analyzes the impact of the rising adoption of AI technologies on the commercial real estate environment. We’ve warned that as the AI revolution remains in its infancy, investors should brace for unanticipated breakthrough advancements that are difficult to predict and precisely time. Indeed, over the past month, a defining event took place, intensifying the competition for AI industry leadership and market dominance. Should investors be wary or optimistic?

European logistics remains supported by strong fundamentals and a resilient rental growth profile, providing a solid foundation for long-term performance. With asset values stabilising, liquidity improving, and occupier demand set to recover, we see 2025 as a compelling entry point to capitalise on the sector’s enduring strengths. To fully take advantage on this cycle, investors should focus on the future – modern, newly built facilities that provide tenants with state-of-the-art distribution capabilities. As supply chains become increasingly technology-driven, we believe that a forward-looking logistics portfolio is essential for capturing the recovery and securing superior long-term returns. The logistics sector is likely at a turning point, and investors who align with evolving tenant demands today should be best positioned for success tomorrow.

Juniper Square’s latest report, developed in collaboration with PitchBook, draws on PitchBook and other datasets to explore the rise of retail investors and how GPs are adapting to their demands. Private market investments have boomed over the past decade. Already large at $25 trillion, the market is on pace to more than double in size by 2032 to $60 trillion. A primary driver of this growth is—and will continue to be—the increased participation of individual, high net-worth retail investors in alternative investments. As interest in the private markets accelerates, new avenues for retail investors to access alternatives are emerging. Beyond indirect access to alternatives through publicly traded GPs, interval and evergreen fund structures are becoming key access points that will play a vital role in the growth of retail investor participation.

European prime retail rents are projected to return to modest 1.3% p.a. growth at an average over the next five years, according to our latest research. As retail assets have repriced and retail sales have stabilised, investor sentiment has improved - particularly in the UK. This has in turn contributed to growth in European retail investment volumes of 11% compared to 2023 to a total of €25 billion in 2024. Driven by attractive income returns, our research projects European prime retail total returns to average 8.2% annually over the next five years, led by shopping centres at 8.9% p.a.. French retail markets are expected to outperform other European countries driven in particular by the strength in the prime high street Paris market, which is benefitting from the rebound in tourism and its alignment to the luxury segment.