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42 // iberian.propery / 2017
dossier// ISSUE: TOP IBERIAN cities
A lack of grade A office buildings. It is impossible to keep
attracting corporations and investors if Lisbon’s office stock
does not have quality and dimension at the European scale.
We should look at some buildings in the City of London (or
even Canary Wharf) and the four towers on Paseo de la
Castellana in Madrid: big, impressive, modern and green.
A lack of affordable housing. It is crucial to have housing
alternatives, in quantity and quality for Portuguese residents
and foreigners who come to work in the companies that are
setting up in Lisbon. The city runs the risk of losing major
corporations if their employees can’t find homes to live in.
Lisbon cannot survive on the Chiado and Príncipe Real alone.
Release the last major, iconic plots of land, namely Fei-
ra Popular and Campolide. Any self-respecting European
capital no longer has this type of undeveloped areas in the
city centre. The most balanced price vs. urban mix formu-
la must be found so that these plots can be developed,
thereby creating product for residents and companies. We
are at the ideal stage in the economic and property cycle
for this to happen.
Resolution of the infrastructure issues that have been talked
about foryears, but that no one believes in anymore: expansion
of the airport (or a new airport) and expansion of the metro
network. The metro must reach Alcântara (or even Belém),
Campolide, etc. We cannot keep saying
“there will be a new
metro station here…”
and years go by and nothing happens! The
Airport is completely congested and on some days it takes
more than an hour to get through security … There can be no
economic development without developing infrastructures.
The metro is also crucial to keep cars out of the city.
Francisco
Horta e Costa
CBRE Portugal
Managing Director
Lisbon is an amazing and vibrant city but we still face some
challenges as we are aiming to attract real estate investment:
1- New infrastructures: As the existing airport is becoming
overloaded, there is an urgent need for a new and im-
proved one, otherwisewe risk slowing down tourism, one
of the key drivers of real estate investment in Lisbon. Also
in what concerns internal urban mobility, Lisbon must
improve its local public transport network, especially the
extension of the underground network.
2-There is a need to boost the development of new office
stock as the city is gaining momentum as an attractive
international business destination. The existing new office
supply with the technic and technologic requirements
demanded by multinational companies are not enough
to meet the existing demand. There’s an urgent need for
new, quality office stock in Lisbon, or we may lose the
opportunity to secure important international operations
that are targeting the city for corporate space.
3-Attracting Portuguese inhabitants for the city’s centre is also
a challenge to address. The average housing price range af-
fordable to Portuguese households is belowthe 5,000-7,000
euro/sqm being marketed at Lisbon’s centre and historical
areas, so this stock is mainly sold to international investors/
buyers. Bringing local inhabitants to these central areasmay
have to involve public owned properties. If public estates
such as old deactivated hospitals or military equipment’s
can be sold to private developers at
“controlled”
pricing, the
residential products resulting from that developments could
be priced to target Portuguese medium-income buyers.
Nevertheless, and apart from these and other challenges
that we will need to face in the future, the real estate market
in Portugal has made a huge turn around in the past 5 years,
with great and positive impact in the city and in the life of its
inhabitants, and it will continue to evolve, grow and adapt to
the upcoming requirements of the market. We have some
challenges, but most of all, we still have great opportunities!
Pedro Lancastre
JLL Portugal
Managing Director