The European listed real estate sector has the potential to double in size over the next five years, according to Fraser Hughes, head of research at the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA).
The European listed real estate sector has the potential to double in size over the next five years, according to Fraser Hughes, head of research at the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA).
The main drivers will be banks looking to offload distressed property assets held on their books and private investors turning to REIT structures to realise the value of their investments, Hughes told a seminar at the Realty 2011 trade fair in Brussels on Wednesday.
'A number of opportunities are converging that have the potential to double the current EUR 300 bn market capitalisation of the European listed real estate sector over the next five years under a best-case scenario,' he said.
Hughes made the comments during a seminar on European real estate investment trusts (REITs). He said Europe's three largest economies: Germany, France and the UK, have the greatest potential to increase the size of their domestic listed real estate sectors by between EUR 10 to EUR 50 bn each, but there also interesting situations emerging in Italy, Turkey, Spain and Ireland.
Hughes concluded: 'The value of Europe's investable property stock is the largest in the world at around $9.0 tln, but only a tiny fraction of that is held by listed real estate companies. We are on the cusp of a period of unique opportunities over the next few years to substantially increase the European quoted property sector to the benefit of investors, governments, and private companies alike.'
