Employment in Europe’s commercial real estate sector is down over the last 2.5 years, according to the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), which calls for government policies to help boost the €300 bn industry.

Employment in Europe’s commercial real estate sector is down over the last 2.5 years, according to the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), which calls for government policies to help boost the €300 bn industry.

Research commissioned by EPRA and INREV (European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles) estimated that the commercial property industry added about €300 bn to the European economy in 2013, or around 2.6% of the total. It employed around 3.8 million people: more than each of the EU’s automotive, telecomms and banking sectors.

But these figures are slightly down over the 2.5 years measured since the end of 2011.

Philip Charls, EPRA’s CEO, has called for new policies to help boost the industry and REITs in particular.

‘It’s no coincidence that Ireland, Spain and most recently Italy have adopted listed REIT real investment regimes in the past two years, as they count among the EU’s peripheral economies most severely affected by the economic crisis,’ he said.

‘REITs are the most efficient ways of attracting international and domestic investment capital into an economy’.