Published on : 09 May 20194 min reading time
European real estate is an interesting alternative for real estate investments, in particular thanks to European REITs, which make it easy to invest in European real estate. Germany, United Kingdom and Portugal, find the investment prospects of these real estate markets and the advantages to invest via international SCPI as well as the segments in which to invest in Europe. Here are the countries in which to invest in Europe :
Germany: a real estate market under pressure
More than 10 years after France, Spain, Portugal or England, the German real estate market, hitherto protected, lives its real estate boom, and is thus under pressure “, says Jean-Philippe Petot of the network european independent real estate OptimHome.
With the slump in the real estate market in several European countries, the German real estate market, which had stagnated for many years, has become very attractive to international investors. According to OptimHome, the market has gained 3% per year over the last three years and 9% per year in the big cities. Real estate investments in Germany seem to be an attractive investment, especially in large cities such as Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Amsterdam or Karlsruhe. These cities “combine strong investment markets with good long-term prospects, driven by a strong demographics, a technologically advanced economy and growing urban areas,” says Barnes in the pages of the newspaper Les Echos.
But we can also closely monitor high-end geographical or tourist areas such as Starnberg and Baden-Baden.
However, not all management companies are unanimous about our German neighbor. Thus, Frédéric Puzin, President of Corum AM pointed out in an interview conducted by Café de la Bourse in 2018 that “Germany is now one of the countries in which we must not invest”. The company that judged the market interesting in the past did not invest in our neighbor Germany for about 5 years because Germany is a market with “too many investors who have too much money, triggering an inflationary surge.” If Corum has recently acquired a few buildings, according to its President it is “market accidents”, isolated bargains and not a market strategy.
United Kingdom: a slowdown in price increases
Brexit finally, far from creating a real estate bubble risk was the trigger for the slowdown in British property prices, as early as 2016 for some parts of the territory. In early 2018, London was also hit. The fall would reach 15% in some districts of the British capital according to The Guardian. But London is still the city acclaimed by the very wealthy clientele and the luxury real estate market in central London seems to have a bright future ahead of him. Consequence: Corum XL still does not invest in the British capital considered too expensive.
Portugal: the darling of foreign investors
The Portuguese property market has struggled to recover from the 2008 crisis. But since 2015, the first year of growth in 5 years in Lisbon, prices have risen steadily. The profitability of rental property is more interesting in Lisbon than in France. The cost of living is relatively low and its real estate market continues its slow recovery since the global financial crisis.
Chinese, Americans, Russians, Colombians, Brazilians, Spaniards, French and Scandinavians were the big investors in Portugal. In 2016 and 2017, the French are the first foreign investors in the Portuguese stone, declassifying for the second year in a row the British and the Chinese. Indeed, 30% of goods purchased by non-Portuguese were acquired by French in 2017.
In addition to the living environment, Portugal also has one of the most attractive environments in terms of taxation in the world and has one of the most attractive immigration programs for investors. Taxation is really very advantageous for foreign pensioners in Portugal: the RNH status allows the French pensioner to be taxed only 20% on his income generated and collected in Portugal and he still enjoys a tax exemption during 10 years on his income from abroad.