OUTLOOK 2014: All eyes on asset management and value add

Stronger interest in secondary property to which value can be added will be a major theme in 2014, according to market experts.

‘Asset management is the story for the coming years,’ Marcus Cieleback, head of research at Patrizia Immobilien, told PropertyEU’s Outlook Briefings at end-December in London. ‘Investors are asking themselves: what are we buying, how can we work on the property, how will this asset be placed in a higher interest rate environment, four or five years from now? Opportunities in the years ahead will be not so much in prime but in secondary real estate, and by secondary I mean not in terms of location but in terms of quality/tenancy and value-creating potential.’

Another big trend is the return in appetite for investment in southern Europe. Long regarded as 'no-go’ areas, countries like Spain and Italy are now back on the radar, and international money is making the deals.

The growing role of Asian - in particular Chinese - investors in Europe will also be felt, according to Richard Divall, head of cross-border capital markets EMEA at Colliers International. ‘Chinese investors invested €8 bn outside their home market in 2011, by 2020 they are forecast to invest some €400 bn. This wave of capital will largely be targeting real estate and infrastructure,’ he said.

Read more expert views from PropertyEU's Outlook Briefings in the attachments below.