This was one of the main conclusions of a real-time interactive survey carried out during the Portugal Real Estate Summit, which took place on the 26th and 27th of September at Estoril.
Together, real estate developments (41% of responses) and strategic rehabilitation projects (27%) gathered 68% of investors’ preferences when deciding where to invest.
On the other hand, 30% of respondents pointed out investment in existing assets in order to create value as the best investment opportunities. It should also be highlighted that only 3% of investors pointed out core assets as the best investment opportunities.
At one of the debates during the investment forum organized by Iberian Property, Volkert Reig Schmidt, Novo Banco Real Estate’s CEO, considered that «real estate developments are in fact great opportunities», as well as urban rehabilitation projects. «We sold large assets both in Lisbon and in Porto», he revealed.
Pedro Silveira, Chairman at Grupo SIL, a national real estate group and one of the largest operating in Portugal, confirmed that «over the last two years we took some strategic decisions within the group, in terms of capitalising the group and investing in development».
«In our case, since we have terrains in our portfolio, we are in a position which allows us to start developing and invest in new projects which, within five years, will be concluded and operating, contributing once again to our yield», he revealed. Returns are one of the attractions: «if we develop a project from scratch and keep it until its rental stage, the higher yields will be far higher», noted Pedro Silveira.
Pedro Seabra, Partner Real Estate at Explorer Investments, added that developing opportunities are not necessarily confined to Lisbon and Porto. «Even if we are talking about hotels, tourism or housing, I would say we have opportunities all over the country; and if we are talking about offices, Braga, for example, is a city worth looking at».