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Germany revealed as top property investment prospect in European real estate markets
Germany is the best country in Europe right now for property investors, especially those seeking long term prospects, according to an annual European survey.
It is revealed as the top prospect followed by Italy, France and the Benelux countries according to the annual survey of the state of real estate markets.
Spain, Ireland, Hungary and Portugal are more risky, according to the European Property Market Relative Attractiveness report from Invista Real Estate Investment Management.
It ranks countries in Europe according to risk adjusted performance prospects over the next five years.
Germany moved up from seventh place last year knocking the UK market off its first place ranking. Italy came second moving up from 11th place. The Netherlands stayed in third place, while Belgium moved up four places from eighth place last year. France dropped one place from fourth place last year.
The biggest fall in performance was in Ireland which dropped 10 places from fifth to 15th place as investors anticipate an exaggerated slowdown in economic growth in the country over the next five years.
Finland dropped six places from 6th to 12th while the UK, which was first last year, came in at sixth place. Spain retained the same ranking at 10th place but Invista said it expected its economic growth to slow down in the coming years.
Germany and Italy are regarded as good prospects because of their diversified investment opportunities and also returns can be enhanced over the medium term through active asset management.
Poorer performers were the smaller less liquid property markets, such as Portugal, the Czech Republic and Hungary, which fell in the rankings with higher levels of expected pricing volatility.
Invista said the changes to the rankings reflect higher economic and capital markets related risk created by the global credit crunch. It said investors are re-assessing their attitudes towards property pricing and risk but should look beyond volatile short term data and take a medium term view of market performance.
'The global economic events of the last 12 months have forced investors to reassess their attitudes towards property risk and pricing. Our research indicates which markets are expected to fare better over the medium term, and in our opinion, low-beta markets are better positioned to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns,' said Tim Francis, head of continental European research at Invista.
'Despite recent weak economic data, we believe the German property market should consolidate its position as a key investment target for diversified investors,' he added.
