Nai Pickard

Expo Real 2011: attendance report from NAI Pickard

Attendees of the 14th International Trade Fair for Commercial Property and Investment ExpoReal 2011 (Munich 4-6 October) arrived at the exhibition with mixed feelings. 3 days before the world market had been fluctuating feverishly again: oil prices were down sharply, Stock markets in Europe, Asia were down and in the USA caused by  a background of investors’ panic about the world economic perspective, eurozone debts and worrying news from China.

Despite this turbulence delegates tried to put on a brave faces and among Greece, Italy and so on subjects they shared also positive news of the real estate opportunities. The number of attendees was significant - around 37,000 people from 72 countries (19,000 were trade visitors and 18,000 were representatives from the exhibiting companies). The majority were as usual German (80%) so it was no surprise to hear German spoken on the stands. The official data showed that 1,610 companies from 34 countries exhibited at EXPO REAL 2011 where the top ten countries (after Germany) were Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France, Poland, the USA, the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation and Luxembourg. International property consultants’ stands were some of the busiest places in the exhibition. International property consultants NAI Global was present with members from 22 countries on their corporate stand (total NAI Global have 55 country representatives).NAI Pickard had a 3 delegate team to present their services and investment opportunities in the Ukrainian property market.

The principal tendency for investment activity mostly remained the same: investors continued to focus on the premium core assets in the economically more stable markets such as Germany, UK, France, Sweden & Norway. Despite the shortage of such prime core assets and correspondingly low yields the investors are in no hurry to switch to secondary assets. The main trends could be seen from the conference topics that were held in the 4 pavilions. However it was not easy to get a clear picture as to investor sentiments – you could hear several different opinions from experts of the property industry.

There is no a single trend as every country has its own difficulties. In the CEE countries Poland and Czech are the investment favourites, mostly in the retail sector. The Russian and Ukrainian markets have relatively strong economics but most of their growth capital is their own. However the fresh news about Morgan Stanley together with investment partners being close to buying for $1.1 bn the largest shopping mall in St Petersburg was widely discussed. By the way the St Petersburg’s stand was the most active among the Russian stands where various presentations about the city’s potential and their infrastructure projects were presented and meetings with local authorities were being held. Our Russian colleagues from NAI Becar were well pleased with their meeting results from this stand.

There were no national or regional Ukrainian stands at Expo Real 2011 as any state/regional authority representatives as usual. The reason no doubt this time as they busy planning for Euro-2012. Unfortunately nearly all investors when Ukraine was mentioned seemed more focused on the ‘Timoshenko trial’ and it’s damaging implications rather than on the positives such as high growth rate, good property yields and the economic advantages of Ukraine. But despite an absence of  any Ukraine support at the exhibition, NAI Pickard (thanks to our many years of international property exhibitions participation experience) spent their  time effectively and had some fruitful meetings most of which were agreed in advance. The result was new quality contacts including serious enquiries for potential acquisition of a shopping centre, a 5 star hotel, a fashion centre, logistic facilities and even senior housing from investment groups and developers.

After the exhibition NAI Global held its regional EMEA group meeting to review its expansion programme for 2012 as a result of the proposed CIII takeover plus the introduction of our new agent in Dubai NAI JAJ Consultants. Discussions on NAI’s programme of ‘green buildings’ was a major feature of the presentation programme by NAI executives from New York & London.