Pepijn Morshuis, CEO of developer and investor Trei Real Estate, is ‘cautiously optimistic’ on market prospects halfway through this year’s Expo Real.
‘There’s a real sense that everyone wants to get started again,’ he told PropertyEU. ‘There is plenty of money out there, but everyone is thinking about how to invest it. It sounds like the market has definitely turned the corner; it’s not at full speed, but we’re moving from first gear to second.’
Trei is an active developer, particularly in the residential for rent space, and Morshuis noted that the firm had managed to take a number of projects forward thanks to some strategic planning. ‘A lot of the land we are building on, we have had in ownership for some time, so the cost basis is low,’ he said. ‘And we are not very highly leveraged, so we haven’t been hit with a lot of the problems that developers experience.’
In fact, Trei is having notable success taking forward seven projects in Germany, despite the broader clouds hanging over the economy. ‘We have two under construction, three not far from the building permit stage, and two more in the early stages of zoning,’ he said. Again, existing land banks have been key.
‘Further opportunities in Germany are few and far between,’ he said. ‘Thomas Daily reported that we were exiting the market, but that’s not the case. We are simply waiting for the right chances.’
And despite Germany’s economic woes, Morshuis said he still believed in the market. ‘You need to separate the kinds of projects that we do from the economic outlook. Prospects are rather good for residential, and there is still pressure on housing. Unemployment is also very low. But it’s clear that Germany needs to go through a period of modernisation and that is still slow.
‘There’s a lack of digitalisation, higher productivity needs to be achieved somehow, and infrastructure has been neglected over the last 20 years. That’s a really big challenge – I don’t see the government taking the right steps to solve this.’
For this reason, Trei is expanding its activities in Poland and the US. ‘We allocate funds based on opportunities,’ he noted. ‘The US keeps growing – the rental market is going through a small dip but we are already seeing improvements in the markets.
‘In Poland, the retail park market is still doing very well. Twelve months ago, tenants were a little hesitant as they saw customer expenditure going down a little. Now, there are more expansion plans by retail tenants in Poland, and we see big opportunities for rental housing in Poland. We started our first residential project there at the start of this year and are waiting for the permit on the second. So, we’re still moving forward – we haven’t really stepped on the brakes.’
