REAL ESTATE

Led by a panel of foremost retail real estate experts, the session delves into the rapidly evolving post-pandemic retail investment landscape. As inflation and lagging consumer confidence weighs in on retailers, fundamentals remain solid as indicated by persistent low unemployment and lower vacancy levels in contrast to last year. Unpacking global and regional macroeconomic factors and disruptive consumer trends, the panel sheds light on performance drivers and barriers for various retail property types in city central and suburban locations. Speakers highlight shifts in consumer behavior, technology integration, expansion of mobile ecommerce, experiential shopping concepts, supply chain issues, and evaluate their impact on – and implications for – retail real estate investment. The experts further examine leasing, operating and investing strategies and share their views on emerging risks and opportunities for niche retail sectors.

The panel, led by top PBSA experts, covers a wide array of topics crucial for understanding the student housing market in today’s economic climate. The discussion begins by contextualizing PBSA within the broader real estate industry, highlighting its resilience and attractiveness to investors. The experts share their perspectives on macro, local and regional trends (enrollment, demographic, lifestyle, digitalization, construction) and explore key value drivers for PBSA assets. Discussions factor in performance metrics such as rent growth, yield development and occupancy levels in select markets. The session further provides insight into new developments, highlighting the role of design and technology in enhancing living experiences and securing a strong tenant base. Concluding, the speakers reflect on emerging risks and opportunities for investors, with an overall compelling outlook for the sector.

The essential need for providing healthcare services, the ageing population, as well as high entry barriers and long-term lease nature make the healthcare real estate an attractive asset class for investors seeking stable, long-term returns. John Gladstone, EMEA Healthcare Capital Markets leader at JLL engages Xavier Cheval, CEO at Icade Santé and Charles-Antoine van Aelst, CIO at Aedifica to shed light on both acute and long-term healthcare care sector performance in the current markets, emerging challenges for operators and potential risks for investors. The panel reflects on market consolidation trends, growing demand of high-quality assets as part of critical infrastructure driving future growth and demand for more investment capital. The panel further discusses tenant/leasing strategies, rent sustainability, underwriting of assets, financing and construction costs, and how specialist funds stand to benefit in the long-run.

Brought to a sudden halt during the pandemic, the hotel industry took a quick path to recovery as lockdown restrictions were lifted and international travel resumed. Despite macroeconomic headwinds in the face of rising debt costs, inflation, geopolitical tensions, and supply chain disruptions, the global lodging industry continues to show resilience as it strives towards a full recovery. Subdued investment activity and discrepancies in asset pricing point to uncertainties still looming over the industry.
In this session, a panel of leading hotel experts dissect market fundamentals, evaluate strategies and performance across locations and property types. The panelists expose key trends and drivers shaping today’s hotel investment landscape, discuss risks and challenging facing owners and operators (e.g., lower revenues, higher costs), and share asset management and operational insights for higher occupancy and profitability. Other topics address alternative/long-stay products, use of technology, new developments, management contracts, emerging growth markets and travel patterns.

Logan Smith, Head of Industrial & Logistics (Europe) at Hines is hosting a panel of foremost experts – Thomas Karmann of AXA IM Alts, Jörg Kreindl of CBRE and Dr. Killian Mahler of DLE Group – to evaluate the industrial/logistics real estate sector and to address issues top of mind for investors, developers and occupiers alike. Topics explored focus on the effects of inflation, tightening credit and supply chain disruptions on the sector, the occupier market, rent growth drivers, cap rate development and vacancy trends across European logistics hubs. The speakers further deliberate on occupier needs and challenges, supply-demand imbalances, (non)speculative construction, land scarcity, constraints in obtaining building permits, asset pricing/valuations, as well as allocation and risk management strategies. How investors and occupiers can benefit from sustainability and technological innovation are also addressed.

In this session, a panel of leading experts delve into the European office sector, reflecting on global, regional economic developments, disruptive trends and investment strategies shaping the future of office real estate. Speakers dissect supply-demand dynamics in primary and tertiary markets, reflect on rent and yield development and explain forces driving vacancy and take-up levels. The panel further explores the shifting priorities of tenants and how office space and design adapt to remote and hybrid work realties. Other key topics assess include new developments and construction costs, approaches to value-add and repositioning, risks associated with oversupply or shortages in certain markets, as well as strategy insights for optimizing asset and investment performance.

In this session, Eri Mitsostergiou of Savills engages leading investors in residential real estate – Christian Fladeland of Heimstaden, Joe Persechino of AXA IM Alts and Christoph Meszelinsky of BNP Paribas Real Estate – who bring local and regional perspectives on the multifamily sector. The panel covers a broad range of key topics, from market risks to supply-demand imbalances, development and construction trends, portfolio strategies, transaction activities, affordable housing as well as evolving regulations shaping Europe’s residential sector. The experts also reflect on emerging product offerings, yield strategies, rent and CapEx optimization, subsector performance, and share – in conclusion – their growth and investment outlook for the region.

Tightening monetary policies amid inflation have created a considerable funding gap in the real estate sector. As traditional providers of credit retrench, opportunities emerge for alternative lenders. Andrew Gordon, Head of European Real Estate Debt at Invesco engages a highly experienced panel of debt specialists from leading investment groups – Natalie Howard of Schroders, Cyril Hoyaux of AEW and Pierre Saeli of SCOR Investment Partners SE – who reflect on Europe’s credit landscape, emerging risks, challenges and prospects for investors and borrowers alike. The panel deliberates on shifting fundamentals in commercial real estate financing and their implications for debt structuring, LTV ratios, and asset valuations. Panelists provide insights into underwriting, interest rate hedging, allocation strategies and diversification across sector, size and seniority, and share their investment outlook for the asset class.