GRI UK & Europe Reunion 2024

Following our ‘Women Leading European Real Estate ’ and ‘Investments in Iberia ’ GRI Club Meetings, day one of GRI UK & Europe Reunion 2024 kicked off in earnest with an introduction from GRI Club CEO & Managing Partner, Gustavo Favaron, before an insightful presentation on ‘From Uncertainty to Opportunity - Real Estate Value in the New Normal’ from PIMCO’s Global Head of Research, Megan Walters.

• The private, investor-driven roundtables revealed that, despite concerns, an overall sense of cautious optimism prevails among the biggest decision makers in the industry. It was also noted that there is a strong preference for value-add buys as the winning strategy for 2024.

Day two began with the Chairmen’s Predictions session, led by GRI Club Chairman, Henri Alster, with industry leaders sharing their outlooks and concerns for 2024 . A wide range of breakout discussions followed, with topics including offices, debt & preferred equity alternatives, ESG & technology , BTR, alternative assets , hospitality growth, refinancing, and much more.

• Although the notion of offices dying was dismissed, the current office landscape is still marked by decreased occupancy, prompting a shift in location dynamics, budget constraints, and considerations about the economic viability of repurposing.?

Stay tuned for more updates from the event, including a report on all of the key takeaways from the discussions, coming soon to the GRI Hub .

You can learn more about the activities of GRI Club Europe, including membership benefits and upcoming events, HERE .

“Everybody's looking for something transformative” Josh Panknin

“Stop believing the hype” says Josh Panknin, Director of Real Estate AI Research and Innovation at Columbia University , when GRI Club asked his advice for the real estate industry regarding the adoption of Artificial Intelligence, ahead of his participation in the AI, Tech & Data panel at GRI UK & Europe Reunion 2024 .

• “Real estate has constraints that are completely contradictory to what machine learning does well,” explains Josh , pointing to the wide breadth and lack of depth in real estate data, along with geographic, temporal, legal, and qualitative constraints that are further compounded by a lack of understanding in the industry.??

To learn more about his outlook on the topic you can read all of Josh’s insights on the GRI Hub - including the importance of understanding what is being invested in, ethical considerations , the role of regulation in the progress of AI in real estate, and more.

Read the full article HERE .

George Nicholas on the Return of Hospitality Fundamentals

According to George Nicholas, CEO & Founder of Shibui Capital , the hospitality sector was hit the hardest during the pandemic. However, since then, “the fundamentals of the hospitality real estate business have returned.”

• George shared his perspectives on current opportunities in the real estate market with Gustavo Favaron, CEO & Managing Partner of GRI Club , during the recent GRI Global Chairmen’s Retreat 2024 .

“There’s a lot of capital structure disruption still. There are a lot of upside down balance sheets that need to be worked through. So we have good underlying fundamental business but broken capital structures that present opportunities for the investors .”

• The discussion also involved the predominance of opportunities in the two extremes – either budget or luxury hospitality. Luxury products have benefited from repricing and been able to keep up with inflation, while the budget sector is encouraged by the current cost of living crisis .

Watch the full interview with George HERE .

Iberian Perspectives from Joan Vidiella

“No one is doubting that the office sector is struggling, but despite the headwinds, if you have an angle; if you are a specialist ; if you have the skills and resources to work around this, then you can succeed.”

• This is the outlook of Joan Vidiella, Managing Partner of Spinnia , an asset manager focused on the logistics sector in Spain and Portugal. Joan met with Gustavo Favaron, CEO & Managing Partner of GRI Club , at the GRI Global Chairmen’s Retreat 2024 to discuss his perspectives on the current real estate market.

Considering the market’s current struggle against the macroeconomic and geopolitical turbulence, this is certainly a refreshing perspective . “We are optimistic because we know what we do, we know the market we are in, and we know that we are adding value every day. This is a question we ask ourselves all the time - are we adding value?”

See more from Joan by watching the full interview HERE .

Other News ??

?? Real estate secondaries drop to pre-2021 levels from record high

?? UK shows signs of recovery from mild recession, says Bank of England

?? European Residential REIT Reports 2023 Annual Results

?? Hedge funds bet against German lender over US real estate exposure ??

? Listed real estate in Spain outperforms the European index

Corporate Radar ??

?? Hamburg Commercial Bank finances Hines' Germany project ?

?? Starwood acquires $850 million stake in Echelon Data Centers

?? IWG announces expansion in Hungary with three new openings

?? London's BT Tower: Landmark to be turned into a hotel after ￡275m sale ?

?? Mapfre sells its Madrid data centre to ICG and Teras Capital funds

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