Dutch residential is one of the few arenas to offer cyclical opportunities for real estate investors in the current low growth, low inflation environment in much of Europe, according to Marcus Cieleback, head of research for Patrizia Immobilien.

Dutch residential is one of the few arenas to offer cyclical opportunities for real estate investors in the current low growth, low inflation environment in much of Europe, according to Marcus Cieleback, head of research for Patrizia Immobilien.

'I think one of the challenges for 2015 will be to find properties given there will be low growth and low inflation for years to come,' Cieleback told PropertyEU's Europe & Netherlands 2015 Outlook Investment Briefing in Amsterdam on 2 December.

This situation, according to Cieleback, will shape the underlying investment story in the next few years. 'There isn’t really a cyclical point where we can say overall market conditions are improving. So, you need to really understand what's going on and the fundamentals of your property; you have to have people on the ground to actively manage the property to generate a return above the prime yield you can achieve in all markets - which is exactly what investors are looking for.'

Cieleback, however, singled out the Dutch residential sector as one of the few markets with 'cyclical opportunities' that offers attractive and decent returns in a European-wide comparison. This is due to structural changes brought about by government liberalisation reforms and pressure on some owners to sell assets.

'At the same time - if you are a little braver and looking for niches - Dutch retail might be a good play to look at for the next 12 to 18 months because this sector should benefit from the moderate economic improvement in the Dutch market in the last 6-8 months.'

Click here to watch the full interview with Patrizia's Marcus Cieleback.