Unleveraged players see benefits in credit crisis

The global credit crisis is good news for the more established real estate players with ready access to equity, according to Jean Francois Ott, CEO of Orco Property Group. 'The credit crunch may slow the market down,' he said in an exclusive interview in the upcoming edition of PropertyEU Magazine.

'The market has been moving too fast, everybody is turning to development these days, it reminds me of the eighties and the nineties. Banks will become more cautious about providing 100% financing. I think a golden period is ahead for the old-fashioned unleveraged guys like ourselves.'

Will Rowson, head of Continental European Acquisitions at ING Real Estate Investment Management, also sees institutional buyers filling the gap left by the highly-leveraged players. Speaking at a client conference in Amsterdam in mid-September organised by ING Real Estate Investment Management (ING REIM), he said the playground for arbitrage has shrunk dramatically. ‘'We will see the return of the big battleships as the crisis takes the wind out of the sails of the leveraged buyers,' he predicted.