Throughout the next few months, in the large urban centres of Lisbon and Porto “are going to continue to experience high demand for urban rental and renewal. Profits will continue to rise this year” in a scenario where “there will continue to be more money to invest in real estate”, comments the Director-General for CBRE Portugal, Francisco Horta e Costa.
In his opinion, the fact that “investors are aware that they have to undertake higher risk in order to obtain higher yields, coupled with the scarcity of supply of quality office space, will result in the return to real estate development and the consequent sale of land for the construction of offices, housing and logistics.”
Furthermore, he adds, the demand for offices from nearshore companies “will lead to the expansion of the office market to other cities like Porto and Braga”.
The country also expects the entry of new hotel chains in the country, which has never before been such a sought after tourist destination. Hilton and W, a hotel company from Qatar, are just a couple of examples, and also there are some tourist projects which were halted in 2009 which are due to be renewed.
Another tendency highlighted by the consultancy for this year is the expected acceleration in the sales of assets processes by banks which were, meanwhile, recapitalised, due to the entry of new shareholders and to the identification of a significant level of registered impairments, “which will have a positive impact on market” say Horta and Costa.
Record year for CBRE
In 2016 activity at CBRE Portugal grew 25% compared to the previous year, with the consultancy recording their best year ever in the country. This year also holds promise, with deals in the pipeline worth 450 million euros of business investment, with a conclusion predicted for the first trimester, plus a further 300 million euros until the end of the semester.