Real Asset Media Thought Leaders

Financials to drive Europe’s retrofit push, Aleksander Grabecki, CMS

Financial considerations are becoming the driving force behind Europe’s decarbonisation of real estate, according to Aleksander Grabecki, counsel at CMS.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, he said retrofitting is now the only viable route to meet looming EU climate deadlines.

Grabecki said landlords face a tight regulatory window. “The EU is pretty clear about all the buildings needing to be net zero in 2030. It’s in five years, basically; it’s one lease cycle away — not much time.”

He added that “80% of the existing buildings will be with us until 2050, so much longer”, meaning new developments cannot replace enough stock to meet demand.

He pointed to the sector’s carbon footprint. “The built environment is accountable for 42% of the carbon emissions worldwide… and two-thirds of that is really operational carbon footprint, and only one-third is the embodied carbon footprint.”

This means, he said, that “construction and demolition of the buildings is only one-third, and two-thirds is the energy bills, water consumption, things like that, so it’s decades of bills being paid”.

The financial case for retrofitting now aligns directly with ESG outcomes. “The conclusion of that is that we really can do it and should do it from the financial perspective… so basically, caring about the melting icebergs is also caring about the Excel of the financial fund.”

Digital tools are strengthening the link between emissions reduction and operating costs. “Now with AI and much more digital tools like building information modelling (BIM), and things like that, real estate agencies offering services like plug-ins to building management systems (BMS), allowing you to cut costs for some savings that could translate into rent increases; it really creates a good environment actually to tweak with the ESG credentials.”

He said the key message from the market is clear: “This is the key takeaway, when we can basically marry the financials with caring about the climate.”

Poland’s student housing sector enters next stage of institutional growth, Agata Jurek-Zbrojska, CMS

Poland's living sectors are evolving from niche offerings into recognised institutional investment products as student housing, micro-living, and co-living models expand across the market, according to Agata Jurek-Zbrojska, partner and head of real estate and construction at CMS in Poland.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, she said the evolution of those sub-sectors across Europe has changed how investors view the wider living market.

"It's wonderful to observe the students' housing and the other sectors of living like micro living and co-living in [recent] years in Europe," she said. "I think that this evolved from the niche sector to the [core] real estate asset class, and we do see in particular student housing models as the investment products in Europe, across all countries in fact."

Although Poland remains earlier in its development cycle, she said growth is strong and accelerating.

"For Poland this is still the really very dynamically evolving asset class," she said. "We still do have a shortage of professional student housing. Micro and co-living are really, really like a micro percentage, but this is really growing, in particular the student housing."

The rise is mainly driven by the influx of international students and the expansion of English-language programmes at Polish universities.

"This is connected in particular with the flow of international students to the Polish cities, and of course again this is connected with the evolution of the Polish universities, which focused also on growing possibilities for international students to study in English," she said.

Jurek-Zbrojska expects demand to continue strengthening in the short term as more investors seek exposure to the sector.

"So, that's really important. In the short term, I think that this dynamic will be the same. So, there will be an inflow of new investors, I hope, in this sector."

She said macroeconomic conditions remain an external factor, but Poland's fundamentals present a solid case for capital targeting student housing.

"Of course, everything depends on the macroeconomic situation and some questions which we cannot answer, and they are independent of anybody, of ourselves," she said. "But taking into account the economic growth and other economic indicators in Poland, I believe that this will give strong arguments for investors to come to this sector in particular."

She added that both international and domestic student growth — combined with rising household incomes — should support continued market expansion.

"When you see the growth of international students coming, the growth of the students — also national — and obviously the economic growth in Poland allows also the national students to use a bit more expensive student accommodation," she said.

AI and cleaner data can transform real estate decision-making, Mike Harrison, NTrust

Property and investment managers are still struggling to work effectively with the volume of data generated across real estate, but AI tools and closer alignment between stakeholders can significantly improve outcomes, according to Mike Harrison, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at NTrust.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, Harrison said the sector continues to grapple with incomplete, inconsistent datasets. "The industry is still struggling with data. There's a lot of data. Is it clean data, and is it available when you need it? Is it comprehensive? Does it cover all the components needed to make good business decisions? The answer today is not really."

He said AI and structured human-in-the-loop processes can materially accelerate data preparation and standardisation.

"Now with AI and with human-in-the-loop capabilities, structured capabilities in terms of managing process, we can turn data around very much more effectively as a platform through data as a service, and so by applying AI concepts and algorithms to the data, we can now clean it much faster and provide more data on a more regular basis."

For investment managers, the priority is speed. "As an investment manager, you're always looking for the opportunity to source the data quickly, so you can do your real job, which is managing the asset and determining the strategies and within the lifecycle," he said. "But a lot of time we spend just cleaning and managing data."

Harrison said better coordination between property managers and investment managers remains essential.

"The idea is to get the property managers on the same page with the investment managers on process and timing and what is needed in terms of reporting," he said. "So I think that is the biggest challenge, and finding the right hub to share information and have visibility and accountability is critical to the process."

He added that firms should always test operational changes before fully rolling them out.

"If you're looking at a technology, a new process, a change in organisation structure, a third-party provider, you always pilot that first, confirm that it's really going to work before you put your feet in. Change management's big."

NTrust supports clients through these transitions with structured frameworks. "What we do is we provide playbooks and onboarding concepts and then project management around that through our organisation and through some of our partners to help clients make that change because it is a big change," he said.

Harrison emphasised that clear objectives and strong communication are vital. "It is important to plan and to structure with any type of change, whether it's organisational change, process change, data and system changes. You always want to put together a plan, and the plan is not just to get through it," " he said.

"The plan is to improve things, have good objectives, and then set the plan out for everyone to understand, buy into the process, have the objectives in front of everyone so they understand what you're really trying to achieve and then work together. It's important; communications are critical."

"We support all of that. We're engaged in a lot of that. We have partners that do that work, but it's critical for our clients as we walk through the process together," he said.

AI set to transform data as a service for investment managers, Martin Betts, NTrust

Martin Betts, vice-president of commercial real estate, EMEA, at NTrust, said real estate investors are increasingly frustrated by the time and money they spend trying to manage fragmented data, a problem he argues can now be solved with AI-driven tools.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, Betts said the issue has become a constant theme in conversations with senior executives.

“The question I'm being constantly asked, or it's just an issue they're having, is how much time people are spending trying to sort data out,” he said. “Literally, I've just come from a discussion with a CEO, a fund manager, where he said, I've fed up of paying people to just try and manage data and not utilise it. It's costing me a fortune.”

Betts said NTrust’s NSigma3 platform centralises and standardises multiple data types and formats so that fund managers and investment teams can focus on higher-value work.

“Our platform called NSigma3 solves that problem, where that problem is no longer dealt with by the fund manager or the investment manager,” he said.

“We're then dealing with that problem with data as a service, so we are leaving their data analyst team or their asset management team to go ahead and do their day-to-day jobs and not try and struggle with the complexities of multiple data types and formats and whatever from lots of different providers. Freeing them up to do their jobs, that's what our platform allows them to do.”

However, he said the market still needs clearer understanding of how the technology works and why this generation of platforms is different from earlier attempts. “Education is needed,” he said. “I think people have seen these data platforms come and go. This is different. The AI has been trained on 20 years of experience of all the data that's come through our business, and that allows real efficiencies in time.”

Betts added that the system blends automation with human oversight. “You do need the human in the loop, but 90% of that time is being taken by AI and 10% by the human reviewer to deliver data consistently, but also correctly as well.”

Life sciences and innovation drive economic growth, Vesa Palander, City of Turku

Turku is positioning itself as one of the Nordic region's most dynamic investment locations as strong growth in life sciences, innovation, and major waterfront development reshape the Finnish city, according to Vesa Palander, director of business and economic development at the City of Turku.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, Palander said Turku's long history and fast-expanding economic base underpin its current momentum.

"Turku is the previous capital of Finland. We turned 800 years old in 2029, making it the oldest city in Finland — about 350,000 inhabitants in the Greater Turku region," he said. "We're growing pretty fast, 2% per annum. It's a city that combines history and innovation. For example, makers of the biggest cruise ships in the world."

Life sciences remain one of the city's strongest economic pillars. "We export about 75% of Finnish pharmaceutical products and services, diagnostics, life sciences, women's health tech," Palander said, adding that Turku is also "pretty strong in artificial intelligence, trying to be the kind of leading government tech city in the Nordics, hopefully even at the European level".

He noted that real estate opportunities are expanding alongside economic growth. "Plenty of things are happening as well in all areas of real estate investment," he said.

Much of the current development is concentrated around Turku's coastline and riverfront.

"We start basically from the seaside, because Turku is the key [port gateway] to the Finnish archipelago. We have about 40,000 islands," he said. "Currently, it's maybe a city divided by a river, but we really, really wanted to make a sea city."

New schemes include "a residential area close to the Turku castle, which is at the river mouth," as well as mixed-use districts that combine homes and offices.

Turku Science Park, already home to two universities and thousands of workers, is a core focus for further expansion.

"Two universities in the area, 20,000 students, 40,000 professionals already," he said. "That's an area which we really, really want to make one of the leading hubs in the whole Nordics."

Women's health technology is emerging as a global export engine. "Women's health technology is maybe the strongest area. We're exporting billions of pills basically to all different areas. Bayer, a German company, has its state-of-the-art production facilities in Turku," Palander said.

"A lot of R&D as well. The universities have a lot of research going on in the life sciences area. And it's also a very lively startup scene in life sciences."

Tourism and leisure investment also offer untapped potential, particularly across the region's vast archipelago.

"Turku archipelago is probably the best-kept secret in the whole country," he said. With "40,000 unique islands combining Finland and Orland," the area presents new possibilities for sustainable hospitality and recreational projects.

"That's an area which is pretty much untouched from real estate development perspective as well. A lot of unique opportunities for building up that next experience, whether it's for wintertime tourism or summertime. So, the Turku archipelago is definitely the place to invest."

Delivering sustainability strategies through local engagement: Elín Guðnadóttir, KADECO

Elín Guðnadóttir, programme director at Kadeco, said the push for sustainability and decarbonisation in real estate will only succeed if global ambitions translate into locally grounded implementation.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, she emphasised that the sector’s biggest challenge is aligning municipal and institutional stakeholders behind a shared vision.

Guðnadóttir said the industry often treats sustainability as a fixed plan, but in practice it functions best as “a process” that creates space for collaboration.

“You can make the strategy, like you have a beautiful project, and you make a very comprehensive sustainability strategy. However, if you look at it as a process, it is a platform for dialogue between key stakeholders,” she said.

For Kadeco, which works across two municipalities and alongside airport authorities, that dialogue-first approach is essential from the outset. “And in our states now, it's more about dialogue with the municipalities, with airport authorities, creating that trust between those stakeholders and then taking it further to the implementation stage, getting financiers or companies or businesses that want to establish themselves,” she said. “Then we already have that trust between the key local stakeholders.”

Achieving alignment is rarely straightforward, she acknowledged, because sustainability still means different things to different groups. “Getting people on the same page with this is always a challenge, but it's also getting people to an understanding of it. What does it mean? But it's also about listening,” she said.

As a land developer, Guðnadóttir said Kadeco’s approach is rooted in understanding local needs before pursuing wider ambitions. “The key thing for us as a land developer, as the owner of the land, but actually operating within two local municipalities, is to listen and understand the local needs. And we won't do anything globally unless we have the local stakeholders with us.”

Opportunity to rethink how real estate can drive performance: Paul Danks, SIOR

Commercial real estate professionals must adapt to shifting global dynamics by rethinking how decisions support long-term business performance, according to Paul Danks, international representative on the SIOR Board and director at DRG Group.

Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, Danks said: "What we're seeing right now is that the real competitive edge in commercial real estate comes from understanding how global forces are shaping local markets and being able to respond quickly to those changes."

"At SIOR, we have over 4,000 members in over 50 countries, which gives us a constant stream of on-the-ground insight, and that's vital when clients are looking not just for advice but for forward-thinking solutions," he added.

Danks said clients that succeed are those "asking better, more strategic questions about how their space supports their business."

He added: "This isn't just a period of change, it's a real opportunity to rethink how real estate can drive performance, reduce risk and support long-term goals like flexibility, innovation and sustainability."

He emphasised that sustainability has become fundamental to competitiveness in the sector.

"If you're not taking sustainability seriously, it is actually a licence to operate," Danks said. "If you are not really adjusting your approach to dealing with real estate, to investing with real estate and to occupying real estate, then you're going to be facing some serious challenges in the future."

"At SIOR, we take ESG and ESG strategy and sustainability very, very seriously and support our members across Europe in working with their clients on that very important subject," he explained.

Strong demand for residential across all major European cities, Hilke Nijmeijer, CBRE IM

Investor sentiment towards European residential markets has turned increasingly positive, according to Hilke Nijmeijer, senior portfolio manager at CBRE Investment Management, speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025.

"You can sense there's more market momentum now. There's more positivism, opportunism about the markets," she said. "There is more interest and enthusiasm from investors to actually step into the residential markets, both in more affordable housing and PBSA."

Nijmeijer said the improved mood is translating into higher deal flow and stronger confidence across the sector. "That mood is positive. That also means that there's more deal flow coming, and, yes, there's a strong focus there."

She noted that the uncertainty affecting broader real estate markets has eased, particularly regarding rental regulation and taxation. "If you specifically look at the residential market, the regulation on rent, on taxation is having a more direct influence," she said. "That's something to navigate through, but that's also stabilising nowadays. And that is not holding back to invest in the residential market, where there's still an attractive risk-return profile to step into."

According to Nijmeijer, both geopolitical and regulatory conditions are now more predictable, giving investors greater confidence to re-enter or expand in residential. "So, I think geopolitical, it is more stable now and also on the rental regulation, it's more stable. So, positive green lights for investing in a residential market," she said.

She added that demand remains strongest in large Western European cities, where supply shortages continue to support rental growth. "Basically, all cities in Western Europe are of interest. The major cities where there's a huge demand supply imbalance, so the fundamentals for residential are right."

CBRE IM is also identifying opportunities in higher-yielding markets. "We have more specific interests nowadays in high-yielding countries like Ireland, Italy, Spain, but also looking at the risk-return profile. So, a wider interest than just those countries."

Defence, advanced manufacturing, battery storage driving logistics demand: Brad Gries, LaSalle IM

Brad Gries, head of the Americas at LaSalle Investment Management, said the logistics sector is evolving as similar demand-side trends shape both the European and US markets, albeit for different reasons.

Speaking to Real Asset INSIGHT live at Expo Real 2025, Gries said there were “some similarities in terms of how the European market is operating relative to how the Americas markets are operating, but also some unique differences as well."

He added: “It was very clear to me that there's an evolution happening across the logistics market, both from an investor perspective as well as from a user-occupier perspective."

According to Gries, the main difference between the two regions lies in the rise of defence-related investment in Europe.

“The big thing that's different, especially from a user-demand standpoint, is defence spending in Europe and the increase in that over the foreseeable future relative to a more stable market in the Americas,” he said.

However, he added that several trends are common to both markets. “Many of the other same trends are happening in terms of advanced manufacturing, battery storage. We have a big chip manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing in the US that's helping drive demand across various markets.”

Turning to the Americas, Gries said market fundamentals are improving. “We're seeing fundamentals improve, supply pipelines have tapered off, demand is stable but a little bit more muted than it was at the peak of the market. So, I think that fundamentals will improve. I expect yields and pricing to remain relatively stable.”

He added that more investors are returning to the market. “We have more capital returning into the market, but we've also got a lot more opportunities as sellers start to bring more opportunities to the market. So, I think that will stay relatively balanced, and that assumes the relatively stable long-term interest rates over the foreseeable future,” he said.

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European Lending landscape is in a unique position: David White, LaSalle Investment Management

Speaking at EXPO REAL 2025, David White, head of LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies, Europe at LaSalle Investment Management, said Europe’s lending market is in a unique phase, with renewed demand for debt and more acquisition financing returning to the market.

“The European lending landscape today is in a really unique situation. We spend a lot of time analysing data, we collect a lot of that, and we look at where things are going. Our pipeline has generally been reasonably similar for the last three or four years in terms of gross lending capacity in the market,” he said.

“In terms of trends, we're seeing a lot more acquisition financing coming to market, particularly in the recent months. There was a little bit of a pause towards the beginning of the year, but it's been ticking back up to levels that we haven't seen since 2022. So acquisition financing is a big component of seeing transaction volumes within the market.”

White added that capital availability remains strong but selective. “There’s definitely a lot of demand for debt. There’s a lot of capital coming to market, there are a lot of new players. But at the same time, we’re all trying to figure out where to pick our spots, where we need to be investing.”

He said LaSalle’s approach is rooted in understanding real-estate fundamentals and borrower business plans. “It’s a matter of thinking about what real-estate types we like and also what basis we’re comfortable with in an environment with limited transaction volume. As a house, we plug into our research and strategy business, we plug into our equity colleagues all throughout Europe. So we have a pretty good finger on the pulse in terms of what we like from a real-estate type perspective.

“We’re very actively lending within those sectors. That includes anything from living, hospitality, logistics, data, leisure, etc. But at the same time, we are a lender. So we follow our borrowers and spend time with them, understanding the business plans that they’re executing. And those that we support, we’ll think about what basis we’re comfortable with. We can get a little bit more creative in terms of other property types when we’re doing that analysis.”

He said LaSalle’s debt strategies platform benefits from a broad capability set. “We lend anything from green lending, senior secured lending, whole loans through to mezzanine and even preferred equity. So we can execute on deals, anything from €50 million to €500 million, depending on the transaction.”

White emphasised that LaSalle’s scale and internal expertise are key differentiators. “We have six offices located throughout Europe. We have equity investors, asset managers, and research and strategy. We also have our internal legal, capital markets, and sustainability teams. That collectively really gives us the ability to drive in one direction and deploy capital in a very efficient way, understanding risk, underwriting risk, pricing risk, and getting deals done.”

“We’re able to offer certainty of execution, but also speed and creativity around offering bespoke solutions, which I think is a unique differentiator for us,” he concluded.

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