Investors continue interest in Portugal for 2022

 In Conference, Conferences and Summits, News, Real Estate

Real Estate investors who where at the Portugal Real Estate Summit in Estoril this week continue to have an appetite for investment in Portugal next year.

Built to rent, student residences and health and logistics are some of the sectors which whetted the appetites of investors and developers who showed confidence in Portugal’s economic recovery.
The Portugal Real Estate Summit which took place in Estoril on 29-30 September saw 250 representatives of the real estate sector from both Portugal and overseas, from countries like Spain, Belgium, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey, the United States, Canada and Brazil.
The central topic of this year’s conference was to set out a roadmap for economic recovery on the Iberian peninsula looking at plans and opportunities in the various segments of the sector in both countries.
Iberian Property which organised the event estimates that real estate investment in Portugal from January to August 2021 has clocked up a sum of €1.205Bn of which 47% (€561 million) was from business deals accomplished in the last two months.
More than 80% of the investors present at this summit said they intended to invest in Portugal next year while 71% believe that prices for the sector will rise.
“Investors are showing an increasing interest in alternative segments at a time in which the investment paradigm is clearly changing. Starting at a global level, there seems to be a more themed approach which investors thoroughly studying the market segment by segment rather than as a whole,” said Dominique Moerenhout, CEO of EPRA.
Moerenhout, who heads the Association for European Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), pointed out that the real estate sector continues to attract investors and had been particularly resilient during the pandemic.
It was also pointed out that the crisis was very different from 2008 and that Europe was better prepared. “This crisis was liquidity crisis and not an insolvency crisis”.
“Which is why we have reasons to be more optimistic today. The sector has returned to the pre-pandemic point five times faster than the last crisis”, adding that the pandemic was not to be seen as a crisis but rather as a transformation for the real estate market,” he added.
70% of those present believed that 2022 would see growth levels return to levels seen in 2019 while 24% thought that the market would exceed these levels.
The opinions gathered from surveys held during the even were borne up by two guest economists who commented on perspectives on how the sector and market would develop, Ana Paula Serra, a Bank of Portugal director and José Brandão de Brito, Chief Economist for Millennium bcp.

Lack of product slows investment

According to specialists from various real estate consultants who addressed the conference (Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE and Savills), Portugal would not escape the current trend for investments diversification, noting a greater evenness in the distribution of capital to different segments.
While offices, retail and logistics were in the sights of investors, emerging sectors in the residential area such as new-build for rent, student residences and senior residences have huge potential for investment attraction and had only been limited because of a lack of product in the market in which to invest.
The heart and wellness segments of the real estate market, not to mention data centres and farming assets are also viewed as new sources for real estate investment attraction in Portugal.

Tourism

The topic of tourism was also discussed with the President of Turismo de Portugal, Luís Araújo, but here optimism was somewhat guarded.
Among those present, 53% thought that tourism was recovering and would be back to pre-pandemic levels by 2022 but 40% believed that tourism revenues would clearly be below 2019 levels.
Nevertheless, hospitality would continue to be in the sights of investors although 50% said they were in two minds on investing in tourism assets and projects over the next two years while 50% said they were inclined to do so, but with prudence.