Real Estate & Public - Public

Real es­tate in­vest­ment mar­kets re­main stable whilst buy­ers con­tin­ue to catch up in con­trac­tu­al risk al­loc­a­tion Lo­gist­ics as­sets more pop­u­lar than ever­De­mand from in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors reaches re­cord high ac­count­ing for 55% of deals, with most in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors still be­ing from with­in Europe­In­creased de­sire for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers con­tin­ued to be a fea­ture in 2021: share of trans­ac­tions in which the buy­er­'s pay­ment ob­lig­a­tions are se­cured reaches an­oth­er re­cord high­Buy­er-friendly trend in con­trac­tu­al risk al­loc­a­tion con­tin­ues as seller-friendly pro­vi­sions on lim­it­a­tion of li­ab­il­ity con­tin­ue to de­clineThe European real es­tate in­vest­ment mar­ket ap­pears to have largely re­covered from the con­sequences of the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic in 2021. Com­pared to the pan­dem­ic-stricken pre­vi­ous year, total in­vest­ment in­creased by around 15% to ap­prox­im­ately EUR 270 bil­lion, mark­ing a re­turn to the pre-crisis level.Lo­gist­ics as­sets per­formed par­tic­u­larly well last year, hav­ing be­come the fo­cus of in­vestors’ at­ten­tion due to their stable in­come flows and the on­go­ing growth of on­line shop­ping. De­mand from in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors was also up again in 2021, with in­tra-European trans­ac­tions be­ing the rule. 2021 also brought a new re­cord high in the num­ber of trans­ac­tions in which the buy­er­'s pay­ment ob­lig­a­tions were se­cured. With re­gard to con­tract design, the buy­er-friendly trend con­tin­ued, as re­flec­ted es­pe­cially by a de­crease in de min­imis and bas­ket clauses as well as caps. Lo­gist­ics as­sets more pop­u­lar than ever Of­fice prop­er­ties were a pop­u­lar as­set class in 2021 des­pite all the un­cer­tainty sur­round­ing the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic, al­though some mar­ket share was lost to lo­gist­ics and res­id­en­tial. The slight down­ward trend in of­fice trans­ac­tions handled by CMS seen in pre­vi­ous years non­ethe­less con­tin­ued, with their share de­clin­ing from 30% in 2020 to 19%. The reas­on for the de­clin­ing pro­por­tion of trans­ac­tions in the of­fice seg­ment is likely to be two-fold, com­bin­ing the lack of avail­able core prop­er­ties and the cur­rent un­cer­tainty around the im­pact of hy­brid ways of work­ing on de­mand for of­fice space.The res­id­en­tial and lo­gist­ics as­set classes on the oth­er hand were es­pe­cially pop­u­lar in 2021, each with a mar­ket share of 23%, com­pared to 22% and 19% re­spect­ively in 2020. One of the key factors for this trend was the stable in­come gen­er­ated by res­id­en­tial and lo­gist­ics prop­er­ties, which is par­tic­u­larly at­tract­ive to in­vestors. Lo­gist­ics as­sets ad­di­tion­ally be­nefited from the on­go­ing growth of on­line shop­ping, which was boos­ted re­cently by the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic and the re­lated clos­ure of re­tail shops, lead­ing to an in­creased need for de­liv­ery and dis­tri­bu­tion centres. High de­mand from in­ter­na­tion­al, mostly in­tra-European, in­vestors In­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors were more act­ive again last year: they ac­coun­ted for 55% of deals in 2021, com­pared to 43% in 2020. In 2020, in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors had a dif­fi­cult time, not least due to the im­pact of the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic. The as­so­ci­ated travel re­stric­tions meant that many in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors from oth­er con­tin­ents were forced to post­pone their planned trans­ac­tions. The prop­erty mar­ket seems to have re­covered from these ef­fects last year, with a new re­cord 55% of trans­ac­tions in­volving for­eign in­vestors. However, these for­eign in­vestors were mostly from with­in Europe; the num­ber of in­ter­con­tin­ent­al trans­ac­tions re­mained be­low pre-pan­dem­ic levels in 2021. Sellers seek se­cur­ity An in­creased de­sire for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers con­tin­ued to be a fea­ture in 2021. The share of trans­ac­tions in which steps were taken to en­sure that the buy­er met its fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tions rose fur­ther in 2021. Sellers were gran­ted se­cur­ity in more than two thirds of cases (70%). This trend is con­sist­ent with 2020, when an in­creased de­sire for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers was already ap­par­ent. In con­trast, se­cur­ity was agreed in less than 50% of all trans­ac­tions in the peri­od from 2015 to 2018. The cur­rent high level is due in part to an in­creased de­sire for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers as a res­ult of the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic; they were of­ten un­cer­tain about the buy­er’s solvency go­ing for­ward. Buy­ers con­tin­ue to catch up in con­trac­tu­al risk al­loc­a­tion Buy­ers were able to catch up fur­ther in terms of con­trac­tu­al risk al­loc­a­tion. The pro­por­tion of trans­ac­tions with seller-friendly de min­imis clauses and bas­ket clauses (i.e. clauses that provide for a threshold or min­im­um lim­it for guar­an­tee claims by the buy­er) stag­nated or de­clined some­what com­pared with the pre­ced­ing years. In the pre­vi­ous year, after a no­tice­able de­cline, agree­ments aimed at lim­it­ing li­ab­il­ity were made in 44% (de min­imis clauses) and 41% (bas­ket clauses) of cases. The share of deals with a bas­ket clause fell fur­ther to 32% in 2021. As in 2020, a de min­imis clause was in­cluded in 44% of the trans­ac­tions ana­lysed. A sim­il­ar trend was seen in con­trac­tu­ally-agreed li­ab­il­ity caps. Whilst the pro­por­tion of trans­ac­tions with a cap was well over 60% in some cases in the years up to 2018, the per­cent­age of agree­ments with a con­trac­tu­ally-agreed max­im­um li­ab­il­ity fell slightly from 56% in 2020 to 50%.

Ger­many’s new traffic-light co­ali­tion is tak­ing shape. How will it af­fect the real es­tate in­dustry?

The COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic has left its mark on the European in­vest­ment mar­ket. In­vest­ment volumes were around 23% lower than in the pre­vi­ous year, 2019, with its re­cord per­form­ance. Buy­ers fo­cused primar­ily on prop­er­ties with stable in­come and those only min­im­ally af­fected by the pan­dem­ic. The num­ber of trans­ac­tions in which steps were taken to en­sure the buy­er met its fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tions was at a re­cord high. The trend to­wards more buy­er-friendly ar­range­ments con­tin­ued. Those are the key find­ings of the CMS European Real Es­tate Deal Point Study 2021.For the latest edi­tion of this sur­vey of the European real es­tate trans­ac­tion mar­ket, in­ter­na­tion­al com­mer­cial law firm CMS sys­tem­at­ic­ally as­sessed and eval­u­ated more than 1,900 real es­tate agree­ments on which it ad­vised in coun­tries across Europe from the be­gin­ning of 2010 to the end of 2020.The key find­ings:In­vestors fo­cus on stable in­comeThe COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic led to a change in in­vestor in­terest in the in­di­vidu­al as­set classes. Buy­ers fo­cused primar­ily on prop­er­ties with stable in­come and those that were only min­im­ally af­fected by the pan­dem­ic. Lo­gist­ics and res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties were es­pe­cially pop­u­lar.Of­fice real es­tate re­mained the strongest as­set class in Europe, but its share of the mar­ket fell to a re­cord low of 30%. De­mand for re­tail prop­er­ties re­mained at a con­sist­ently low level (15%). Lo­gist­ics real es­tate per­formed par­tic­u­larly well, post­ing a rise to 19% , a new re­cord. The pro­por­tion of in­vest­ment go­ing in­to spe­cial­ist prop­er­ties such as ho­tels fell sig­ni­fic­antly (14%). Res­id­en­tial real es­tate proved pop­u­lar with in­vestors, with its share rising to 22%.Sellers tak­ing steps to en­sure that buy­ers meet their fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tionsDur­ing the pan­dem­ic, an in­creased need for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers was ap­par­ent. The pro­por­tion of trans­ac­tions in which steps were taken to en­sure the buy­er met its fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tions rose to a re­cord high of 64%. In pre­vi­ous years, se­cur­ity was agreed in less than 50% of all trans­ac­tions.This high level is due to the in­creased de­sire for se­cur­ity on the part of sellers as a res­ult of the pan­dem­ic; they were of­ten un­cer­tain about the buy­er’s solvency go­ing for­ward. As a means of provid­ing se­cur­ity, both bank guar­an­tees (17%) and a not­ary’s es­crow ac­count (10%) be­came less pop­u­lar. In many cases, in con­trast, the buy­er made an ad­vance pay­ment (29%). In 9% of trans­ac­tions, use was made of sub­mis­sion to im­me­di­ate en­force­ment.Risk al­loc­a­tion in con­tracts: buy­ers catch­ing up in a seller-friendly mar­ket­Buy­ers were able to strengthen their po­s­i­tion fur­ther in 2020 with re­gard to risk al­loc­a­tion in con­tracts. In a mar­ket en­vir­on­ment that re­mained very seller-friendly, they suc­ceeded in ob­tain­ing fa­vour­able con­tract terms more of­ten than in pre­vi­ous years.As part of the war­ranty, guar­an­tees were again agreed more of­ten in fa­vour of buy­ers. The per­cent­age of agree­ments with in­di­vidu­al li­ab­il­ity pro­vi­sions in­creased to 75%. It was com­mon prac­tice to provide for both sub­ject­ive and ob­ject­ive guar­an­tees.The pro­por­tion of deals with seller-friendly lim­its on li­ab­il­ity, such as de min­imis and bas­ket clauses and caps, dropped slightly be­low the pri­or-year level in 2020. The up­ward trend seen over many years in agree­ments aimed at lim­it­ing li­ab­il­ity has thus been curbed some­what, while buy­ers were able to ne­go­ti­ate more fa­vour­able con­tract terms more of­ten than be­fore.Buy­ers also pre­pared ground with re­gard to the con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions on lim­it­a­tion peri­ods. An in­creas­ing num­ber of lim­it­a­tion peri­ods from 18 to 24 months were agreed in 2020, while there was a slight fall in the pro­por­tion of short lim­it­a­tion peri­ods of up to 18 months.Na­tion­al in­vestors more prom­in­entIn­t­er­na­tion­al in­vestors had a tough time in 2020. While in­ter­na­tion­al sellers have been re­spons­ible for the ma­jor­ity of deals since 2017, their per­cent­age dropped back down to 43% in 2020, with na­tion­al in­vestors be­com­ing more act­ive. Na­tion­al in­vestors ac­coun­ted for 48% of deals in 2018, while in 2020, 57% of real es­tate in­vest­ments were made by na­tion­al in­vestors.

Stut­tgart – EnBW En­er­gie Baden-Württem­berg AG has sold 49.9% of the shares in a port­fo­lio com­pris­ing 14 on­shore wind farms with 47 wind tur­bines and total out­put of 133 MW to Com­merz Real’s Klimavest...

From pan­dem­ic to pur­pose  As we wel­comed in a new year, the de­fin­ing is­sue of the next dec­ade looked set to be sus­tain­ab­il­ity. The rise of ESG – En­vir­on­ment, So­cial, Gov­ernance – was no flash in the pan; it was now a guid­ing prin­ciple for glob­al in­vestors and in­sti­tu­tions. Re­spond­ing to the cli­mate crisis was a pri­or­ity. And then COV­ID-19 changed everything.   Few would have pre­dicted quite how quickly the world would be turned up­side down by a glob­al pan­dem­ic, the like of which has not been seen for a cen­tury or more. The hu­man cost and in­di­vidu­al tra­gedies have been in­des­crib­able. The eco­nom­ic and so­cial im­pact un­pre­ced­en­ted. Cit­ies have be­come ghost towns. Mil­lions are work­ing from home, not of­fices. Re­tail, leis­ure and travel sec­tors have been par­tic­u­larly hard hit. And yet, in some ways, the events of 2020 have ac­cel­er­ated changes that were already gath­er­ing mo­mentum. For the real es­tate sec­tor there is now an op­por­tun­ity to re­set. For the first time, our re­search this year polls not only over 240 lead­ers across the real es­tate sec­tor, but over 1,500 seni­or of­fice oc­cu­pi­ers with de­cision mak­ing re­spons­ib­il­ity for prop­erty is­sues, and over 500 glob­al in­sti­tu­tion­al in­vestors. It takes a de­tailed look at mar­ket re­ac­tion to the pan­dem­ic and the last­ing im­pact it could have on the of­fice as­set class and the way in which we will ad­apt to our new work­ing en­vir­on­ment. We will also ex­plore real es­tate’s jour­ney from pan­dem­ic to pur­pose, as sus­tain­ab­il­ity and so­cial im­pact set the agenda for the sec­tor. This is our eighth an­nu­al re­port where we look to the fu­ture, ad­dress key is­sues fa­cing the real es­tate sec­tor and ex­plore mar­ket trends. We hope you en­joy read­ing it.

Real es­tate in­vest­ment mar­ket flat­lining at a high level Total in­vest­ment re­mains at pre­vi­ous year’s level.In­vestors forced to re­vise their in­vest­ment pref­er­ences: of­fice real es­tate still ahead, but...

A first glance sug­gests there were no ma­jor changes in the European in­vest­ment mar­ket in 2018, with the in­vest­ment volume be­ing roughly the same as in the pre­vi­ous year at around EUR 264bn. However...

Ham­burg – As­set man­ager Lux­cara has ac­quired the Önus­ber­get wind farm pro­ject, which is part of the Markby­g­den 1101 cluster, from the de­veloper Svevind AB. The Önus­ber­get wind farm in north­ern Sweden...

Co­logne – Senioren-Wohnen Hold­ing GmbH has sold a real es­tate port­fo­lio com­pris­ing twelve re­tire­ment homes to a sub­si­di­ary of French as­set man­age­ment com­pany Primo­ni­al. Five prop­er­ties are already op­er­a­tion­al...

Stut­tgart – Bel­gian group Cofin­immo is con­tinu­ing its ex­pan­sion strategy in Ger­many by adding two care home prop­er­ties to its health­care port­fo­lio in the coun­try via deals worth EUR 26.5 mil­lion.Cofin­immo...

Strong de­mand for of­fice and re­tail prop­er­ty­In­crease in na­tion­al in­vestors in the European real es­tate mar­ket­Fre­quent agree­ment of seller-friendly pur­chase agree­ment pro­vi­sionsS­tut­tgart – The European...