These results were calculated by Iberian Property based on the latest data provided by EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association) in its Global Real Estate Total Markets Table for the 4th quarter of 2021. According to this document, the Eurozone REITs market closed last year with a total value of 116.04 billion euros, presenting a y-o-y recovery of 12% compared with 103.18 billion euros the previous year, but still 14% below the 135.48 billion euros reported before the pandemic, at the end of December 2019.
Therefore, Iberia concentrates more than half (53%) of the total number of REITs operating in the Eurozone at the close of 2021 (144), with its market value of 22.61 billion euros representing 19% of the approximately 116.04 billion euros calculated within this European space.
Under the local name SOCIMI in Spain, and SIGI in Portugal, on 31 December 2021 there were 77 REITs operating in the Iberian market, most of which (75) based in Spain, where this type of vehicle is called SOCIMI. On this date there was just one SIGI (Portuguese REIT) operating on Lisbon’s stock exchange, where two Spanish SOCIMIs are also listed, namely Merlin Properties, in a dual-listing regime, and Ketsios, which entered the Portuguese market last summer through Euronext’s Access market, bringing the capitalisation of REITs in Portugal no further than 0.03 billion euros, while in Spain this figure amounted to more than 22.58 billion euros. These results clearly highlight the discrepancy that still exists between these two countries in terms of the stage of development of their REITs markets, with Spain almost a decade ahead of Portugal.
According to EPRA, at the end of last year there were 92 real estate companies and corporations (including REITs) listed in Iberia, whose total value amounted to €27.68 billion
Another situation observed in the analysis by Iberian Property is that the share of listed real estate in the total commercial real estate market is higher in Iberia (5.48%) than in the Eurozone (5.07%). This scenario is essentially sustained by the Spanish market, where the ratio was 5.36% at the end of 2021, while in Portugal this figure did not exceed 0.12% (which, nevertheless, still represents an exponential growth of 200% compared with 0.04% reported by the Portuguese market in 2020).
The trend is the same for the share of listed real estate in the total value of the stock market, which in the Eurozone was just 3.01% on 31 December 2021, comparing downwards from the 4.62% observed in Iberia. However, separating Spain and Portugal, once again this is where the development gap between the two countries is most evident, with this ratio settling at 4.49% in Spain, and going to further than 0.13% on the other side of the border (although, again, we underline the growth of 225% compared with 2020, when real estate was worth only 0.04% of Lisbon’s stock exchange).
According to data by EPRA, at the end of last year there were 288 real estate companies and corporations (including REITs) listed in the Eurozone, whose total value amounted to 262.81 billion euros (just 2% below the 268.85 billion euros registered in December 2019). Of these, 92 were based in the Iberian Peninsula, amounting to more than 27.68 billion euros (11% of the European total), of which 27.58 billion were generated by the 89 companies in Spain and the remaining 0.1 billion by the three entities listed on the Portuguese exchange.
Excluding REITs, the total capitalisation of the remaining Iberian firms listed amounted to 5.04 billion euros at the end of 2021, of which 5 billion were based in Spain and the remaining 0.04 billion in Portugal, a value that was still 13% below the 5.78 billion euros registered in December 2019, although reflecting a recovery of 11% from the 4.54 billion registered during the same period in 2020. This means that the contribution of these vehicles to the Eurozone total (146.77 billion euros) was 3% at the end of last year.
We also note that in this specific case, the market value of the remaining real estate companies listed that are not REITs has been rising progressively in the Eurozone in the last two years, going from 133.37 billion euros in 2019 to 142.1 billion in 2020 and, finally, 146.77 billion in 2021, surpassing by 10% the results observed before the pandemic. Specifically in Portugal, the trend was also for growth, going from 0.03 billion in 2019 and 2020 to 0.04 billion the following year. However, in Spain the pandemic was responsible for a significant drop of 22% between 2019 (5.75 billion euros) and 2020 (4.51 billion) and, despite the growth of 11% registered in 2021 (5 billion euros), this indicator has not fully recovered, closing last year 13% below the result recorded before Covid. Unsurprisingly, this last scenario is almost an identical reflection of the Iberian market, whose major driver is precisely Spain, which reached December 2021 with a value of 5.04 billion euros that still represents a decline (-13%) from 5.75 billion registered two years before.
On the 28th of March, the IV Iberian REIT & Listed Conference will gather a panel of real estate experts that will provide valuable insights on all these matters, specifically addressing the listed real estate industry resilience and the new path for a sustained growth.
Join Iberian Property & EPRA in a unique event, impossible to miss!
