Emerging Trends in Real Estate®

COVID-19 has transformed the way we live and work. As Europe's property leaders acknowledge, all aspects of real estate have been disrupted by the pandemic and the resulting business upheaval.

This is a hugely challenging time for European real estate, dealing first with a sharp recession in 2020 and now facing the prospect of a protracted and fragile economic recovery with the added threat of further waves of COVID-19.

The industry leaders canvassed for Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe also acknowledge that we are experiencing two shifts which are, as one interviewee puts it, “not on the same wavelength”: a cyclical downturn juxtaposed with long-term structural changes to real estate.

Throughout it all, real estate generally is still seen as one of the few asset classes to generate acceptable returns at a time of low or negative interest rates. And the conventional focus of institutional capital towards core real estate during economic uncertainty is once again evident, just as it was following the global financial crisis.

However, Emerging Trends Europe's constituents also recognise that the pandemic is posing immediate challenges to the security of income from offices and retail while accelerating long-term trends in these two mainstay sectors of real estate, by shaping a world where we can expect more remote working and online shopping.