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Investing in 2018: logistics and hospitals

21 December, Il Sole 24 Ore

Fly to quality. In real estate, it has become more and more important the principle of preferring quality over immediate returns. This is one of the big trends that will characterise 2018. “Investors aim at quality, in which sector to invest is of lesser importance”, states Elisabetta Caldirola, PwC partner. At the same time, another growing trend concern logistics (the volumes of investments in Italy have doubled in 2017) and the research of alternative high-quality assets that could grant good returns. For this reason, investments in hospitals and clinics are growing (such as the last acquisition by Axa of some facilities of the group Humanitas).

Another important matter is technology that will influence future investment choices. “Technology will be increasingly present, and it’s seen as one of the key trends by investors – says Lisette van Doorn, Uli Europe Ceo – The impact of technology concerns every sector of real estate”.

The activities of the third quarter has been slightly higher than that of the last ten years, thanks to the recently closed transactions, and to those that will be registered in the fourth quarter (such as the transaction of Logicor for about 55 million euro), “the investment volume in Italy is getting close to surpass the threshold of 10 billion euro – says Simone Roberti, chief analyst at Colliers – The interest of investors, especially internationally, for the Italian market remains high. Every year for the last two years, it has been said that that was the record, then such record was beaten the following year”. Will it happen in 2018 too? “The uncertainty prevailing in some countries in Europe may play in favour of Italy- says Roberti -. Despite the elections coming in spring, Italy has proved through the years to be a solid country in a situation of political instability. Investors have already taken this into account and the result of the elections should not impact the decision to invest or not in the country”. According to Roberti, the most interesting asset classes are still offices, commercial properties and logistics, as well as the strong interest in alternative assets such as hotels and hospitals. Concerning hotels, investors aim at developing new five-star hotels in Rome, just outside Via Veneto and close to Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.

Cbre Italia estimates that the market will register by the end of the year investments for 10.685 billion euro, against the 9.275 billion euro of 2016. Concerning the sectors, offices will still play the main role with volumes for 3.981 billion euro against the 3.670 euro of the previous year. Retail has decreased with investments for 2.380 billion against the 2.578 billion of the previous year.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi