The residential sector in Europe will continue to attract interest from foreign investors because the imbalance between supply and demand is huge and is set to grow further as the urbanisation trend continues, experts agreed at the PropertyEU Residential Investment Briefing at EXPO REAL on Wednesday.
'We will definitely see more institutional capital coming to Europe,' said Wes Fuller, executive managing director of investment management at Greystar. 'Most major European cities are underhoused, period. This creates a huge opportunity for people like us.'
There is potential in different sectors, from multi-family housing to senior living to student housing, depending on the country, said Fuller, while in the UK there is demand on all three fronts. Germany is another focus for investors because of the stability of its market and the growing importance of its universities.
One pan-European trend is that ‘there are more households but they are getting smaller, said Michiel Dubois, managing directoir of residential real estate at Bouwfonds Investment Management. 'Everywhere people want to live closer to city centres, where the buzz is.' Fuller agreed: 'It is no longer a country play, but rather a city strategy.' But foreign investors are increasingly looking at secondary cities as well as the capitals.
