The information was reported by Nuno Nunes, Capital Markets Senior Director at the consultant, during the conference “Tendências do Mercado Imobiliário” (Real Estate Market Trends), organized by CBRE. According to the specialist, «right now, we have around 500 million euro worth of product which should be in the market during this year’s first semester», he also remarked the launch of three office portfolios, one of them to be set this week. The amounts involved should be between 170 and 180 million euro, as was confirmed by Francisco Horta e Costa, the consultant’s general director for Portugal, to Negócios, including two sets in Lisbon and a mixed use project in Porto.
According to Cristina Arouca, Head of Research at the consultant, in 2018 CBRE calculated a total 3.500 million euro invested in commercial real estate in Portugal (including Fidelidade’s Golden portfolio which also includes residential buildings). If the predictions are confirmed, it will be another «robust» year and the second best ever.
The investment specialist also notes that, this year, «the star sector may be the hotel sector, there are operations estimated at more than 100 million euro, and one «well above 100 million euro» on the pipeline, he reported without any further details.
2019 «won’t be the alternate sector’s year yet, despite the projects already being developed», like hospitals, student residences or housing for sale and for rental. «The only reason 2019 won’t break a new investment record is because, despite there already being development, the product will only be sold in one or two years», explains Nuno Nunes.
SIGIs (REITs) are a great sign for the market
Francisco Horta e Costa also noted to VI the importance of creating SIGIs (REITs), «an excellent sign for the market» which «brings to Portugal a legislation which is already in place in other countries, and which is not new. If the Portuguese model is similar to the Spanish, for example, investors will see that Portugal is modernizing itself and becoming more investor friendly».
The first fruits of this regime may take some time to harvest: «if all goes well, we will have the first property registrations this year. The first investments shouldn’t appear before 2020. It would be good if we could see he first property registrations this year».
In terms of investment product, Francisco Horta e Costa considers that the hotel and housing sectors may be the SIGIs first targets.