Logistics real estate investors are overlooking key markets in Europe, PropertyEU's latest investment briefing on the sector has heard.
Logistics real estate investors are overlooking key markets in Europe, PropertyEU's latest investment briefing on the sector has heard.
Panellist James Markby, head of European industrial & logistics Investment at CBRE, highlighted France as being slightly overlooked despite the fact it is a huge economy.
'It is quite easy to become somewhat French and say "things aren't going well, forget about France",' Markby said. 'Maybe that is a little unfair but trying to do a transaction is significantly harder in France at the moment than in other western European countries. There are all sorts of reasons for this.'
'But France is still a huge economy and I think it is slightly overlooked at the moment and this is reflected in low investment volumes. Most other countries will probably see 20%-plus growth so the money going into France is pretty static.'
Emmanuel Van der Stichele, fund director of Goodman European Logistics Fund (GELF), confirmed that France has not been an easy market for the last 6-12 months. Goodman, he said, remains positive about the market but it is lagging compared to other places in Europe.
One problem is that French logistics is over-rented and sellers are not prepared to discount enough for that, according to Stefan Wundrak, director of research, property at Henderson Global Investors.
The Czech Republic is another market that had been 'overlooked', CBRE's Markby said. 'But several transactions should be taking place in the next several months, and it will be interesting to see if the whole of Europe has got back to a fully functioning market.'
The investment briefing heard that Munich and Milan have also been somewhat overlooked by logistics investors in recent times, while investors are in general becoming much more comfortable about Spain and Italy. Markby: 'There is a lot of appetite for those southern peripheral regions, where supply is quite tight.'
For more, see the presentation and videos from the latest PropertyEU European Logistics Briefing.