The “European Debt Finance & Investment Briefing” gathered experts from Belgium, Switzerland, and from The Netherlands, who addressed among other topics the current European lending landscape. This conference organized by Real Asset Media, took place on ExpoReal (Munich) - the international real estate trade fair.
Duco Mook, Head of Treasury & Debt Financing of CBRE Investment Management, explained that in the last 12 months there was a sort of pause moment in transactions already in process, and the same happened with borrowing money. Linked to the uncertainty of the moment, the criteria of lending changed - there were asset classes who became a “no-go” like retail or that became in a “wait-and-see” position like offices (due to the growth of the teleworking phenomena), and there were “clear winners” like logistics and residential.
Daan Reekers, CCO of Adelaer Group (The Netherlands), commented that there was also a clear prioritization for the banks own clients, meaning that there was increased difficulty of access to financing for new players. However, Daan Reekers sees this as an opportunity for alternative lenders, and stands out that the demand for debt advisors is also increasing.
Martin Bassermann, Chairman of the Board of HFS Helvetic Financial Services AG (Switzerland), focused on the future effects that the present investment decisions have, and highlighted that even though residential is a popular asset class at the moment, we need to have in mind that a development takes about 3 to 4 years, so the real question is: what will the market need in the future years?
On the other hand, Martin Basserman believes that following a core strategy might have been safer in the past, but from now forward a new mindset should be implemented, and asset classes perceived as with higher risk like Hotels are most likely to return with vigor.
Vincent Thyrion, Partner at RSM (Belgium) agrees with the fact that debt is moving away from the banks, but he reminds that the debt didn’t disappear, it’s just changing path. This is a positive movement in Vincent Thyron opinion, mainly because clients requiring more funding from private equity entities and non-professional investors will result in a higher level of trust inside the sector, due to the increased proximity of investors, developers and professionals.