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The property market is still cautious after a positive 2017
09 August, Ask News
Contrary to the expectations, the economic growth has slowed down, resulting in more careful business strategies. The picture emerges from the survey “Sentiment of the property market”, created from an idea of Valter Mainetti, Sorgente Group Ceo, and carried out by Claudio Cacciamani, a professor at the University of Parma. Along with the other real estate analyses (the recent reports by Scenari Immobiliari for instance), the survey reports that, after the dynamic trend of 2017, 2018 seems to have settled into a more moderate growth.
In the first quarter of 2018, the players of the sector said to be positive regarding the economic recovery and more optimistic than in the past, despite the Fiup (the index expressing the sentiment) went from 19.59 to 19.51. The report carried out by the Economics and Business Faculty of the University of Parma in collaboration with Sorgente Group and Federimmobiliare surveys about 200 operators from trading, development, property management, facility management, planning, evaluation, consultancy and real estate finance.
Regarding numbers, 62.5% of the people surveyed say that the main macroeconomic indicators have improved, while 45% expect a further growth in the next months. They look positively at real estate, even though the market has stabilised according to the 28%. Judging from the dynamic business community, which continues gathering at events and exhibitions of the industry, the main question is how to adjust the operational and investment strategies according to the changed economic and social trends.
The direct consequence of this attitude is the belief that prices will stay on the recent values, or that they will moderately grow, while the times to sell will remain unchanged or even increase. Concerning the geographical areas, the North-West reports the biggest growth in all the segments except for the industrial one, which prevails instead in the North-East, while the Centre and the South have excellent opportunities in hospitality. Rome is second after Milan in terms of investments in residential properties, offices and shops; while the capital is first for hotel investments. Both in Rome and Millan, the focus is on the city centre regarding commercial properties; while office investments prefer semi-central areas. Finally, investments in industrial properties concentrate in the city outskirts.
The outlook regarding the investments choices of big investors remains substantially the same: retirement funds, insurance companies and social insurance funds will continue investing in real estate financial instruments. However, the choices are selective and often focused on the optimisation of the real estate assets. Big investors, especially retirement funds, aim at offices, as the preference in this segment has gone from 50% to 70%. Another interesting segment is hospitality.
Finally, another trend concerns the direct connection between the growing inflation and real estate, which generally represents a safe investment despite the economic trends. PIRs are also seen as an important instrument for the growth of the sector, according to 58.5% of the interviewed.
Source: Ask News
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi