At the Portugal Real Estate Summit 2021, the largest investment convention on the Iberian Peninsula held this week in Estoril on September 29 and 30, international investors confirmed their interest in the Portuguese real estate market. They are optimistic about the recovery of the economy and trade after covid.
250 people from the Portuguese and international real estate sector attended the event, including investors and developers from Portugal and Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy and Turkey. Other countries represented at the summit were the United States, Canada and Brazil. The main objective was to establish a roadmap for economic recovery by taking a close look at the different real estate industries.
According to Iberian Property, real estate investments in Portugal reached €1,205 million in the year ending August 2021, with 47% (€561 million) related to acquisitions concluded in the last two months.
More than 80% of the investors present said they want to invest in real estate in Portugal next year, and 71% expect it to be a year of rising prices in the sector. These are just some of the results of interactive surveys conducted in real time throughout the conference sessions.
According to another of the questions asked at the event, 70% of those in attendance expect the economy to grow in 2022 at the same rate as it did before the crisis (2019), and 24% believe it will be a year when economic activity exceeds that level. This sentiment is shared by Ana Paula Serra, administrator of the Bank of Portugal, and José Brando de Brito, chief economist of Millennium bcp, who were asked to comment on the activity forecast.
According to experts from the leading real estate consultancies at the conference (Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE and Savills), Portugal is no exception to the trend of investment diversification, with a more balanced allocation of capital to different segments. While commercial, retail and, increasingly, logistics remain on investors’ radars, growing categories in the residential space, such as greenfield rentals, student housing and senior living, have great potential to attract investment, having been hampered to date by a lack of accessible supply. In addition to data centers and agricultural assets, additional sources of attractiveness for real estate investment in Portugal have been identified in the health and wellness real estate category.
One of the main issues raised by investors is bureaucracy, i.e. unpredictable approval periods, which affect project costs, or legislative instability, such as the suspension of fixed rents for shopping centers, which was implemented last year. Above all, they need legal stability.
With the participation of Lus Arajo, president of Turismo de Portugal, the issue of tourism was also discussed, although the optimism in this area is much more cautious.
53% believe that tourism activity is rebounding and will be close to pre-crisis levels in 2022, while another 40% expect it to remain well below 2019 levels. The hotel sector is still on the radar of investors, who are split between investing with certainty in the next two years (50%) and considering investing with caution (50%).
The information in this article is taken from the website vidaimobiliaria.com
