Real Asset Media Thought Leaders

Jennifer Dixon, founder and chief executive officer of JD Solutions Group, said the European senior living sector offers a significant opportunity for US investors as demographic pressures and low penetration rates begin to reshape demand across the region. Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, she said the level of global interest remains striking. "There were so many different takeaway...

Digital transformation is becoming an urgent priority for real estate owners and occupiers as artificial intelligence reshapes operating models, according to Daniele Di Fausto, chief executive officer at eFM. Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, he said the sector is only now beginning to confront the scale of change required. "The market is starting, so digital players, especially in t...

Romania's North-East region is positioning itself as an emerging investment destination, backed by major EU funding, expanding industrial capacity and proximity to fast-developing markets. Speaking to Courtney Fingar, editor of REAL FDI, Sebastian Hrib, head of the Brussels Office at the North-East Regional Development Agency of Romania, said the area combines untapped potential with accelerating...

Regional investors and domestic buyers are playing a growing role in Poland's real estate market as cross-border capital within Central and Eastern Europe expands and Polish businesses increase their exposure to institutional assets. Speaking to Real Asset Media after a CEE investment briefing held at the CMS offices in London, Michał Mieciński, partner in the real estate and construction team at...

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 needin...

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...

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 grap...

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 qu...

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 econ...

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 i...

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 fr...

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 act...

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...

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, a...

In an exclusive interview at EXPO REAL 2025, Sally Bruer, head of EMEA logistics & industrial and retail research at Cushman & Wakefield, said Europe’s logistics and manufacturing sectors are poised for renewed investment and development momentum despite near-term economic uncertainty. “We all agree that there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, particularly around businesses and their...

Europe’s real estate financing market has turned “extremely liquid” for prime assets as banks compete aggressively to deploy capital, according to Duco Mook, head of treasury and debt financing, EMEA at CBRE Investment Management. Speaking live at Expo Real 2025 with Real Asset Media, Mook said sentiment had improved markedly compared with last year’s event. “I’m seeing the market as very positive...

Investors are increasingly focusing on resilient, energy-efficient and ESG-compliant logistics assets as market uncertainty drives a clear flight to quality, according to Maximilian von Medem, investment management logistics DACH at Union Investment Real Estate GmbH. Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, von Medem said: "Due to current uncertainties in the market, geopolitical disruption...

ULI Europe will bring senior real estate executives to Paris this week for the latest C Change Summit as the organisation steps up efforts to scale decarbonisation across the industry. Speaking to Real Asset Media's Richard Betts, Sophie Chick, vice president for ESG programmes at ULI Europe, said the summit forms part of a wider four-year initiative "to speed up and scale up decarbonisation of re...

Proptech companies must work together if the real estate industry is to achieve meaningful progress on ESG performance, according to Paul Wessels, founder of Blue Module, speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025. Wessels said rising pressure on owners and investors to cut costs, improve reporting and meet sustainability obligations is accelerating demand for integrated digital solutions rath...

Europe's logistics sector remains a buyer's market, but landlords with prime, well-located assets still hold the advantage, according to Balazs Lados, managing director and European fund manager at Realterm. "It's still a buyer's market out there and it's still a landlord's market," Lados told Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025. "So, if you have good buildings in good locations, you can still make...

The residential market remains the hottest investment segment across Europe, according to Britta Roden, head of research for real assets at Swiss Life Asset Managers, speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025. "The residential market is the hot topic in terms of investment right now across Europe," she said. "It's the one segment that's stable across any type of geopolitical risk, across any...

Joël Gorsele, chief executive officer of Intervest, says Europe's logistics market is showing signs of renewed confidence, underpinned by decentralised supply chains and new sources of occupier demand. Speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025, he said stability in macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions has encouraged tenants to restart expansion plans after a period of caution. "Certain e...

At Transport Logistic 2025 in held in Munich (2 to 5 June), Richard Betts, founding partner of Real Asset Media, shared his impressions of one of the world’s leading transport and logistics events. The fair expanded to 12 halls this year — an increase of two compared to 2023 — and attracted over 75,000 attendees. “From my side I can see that it's a lot more international than it has been in previo...

Neill Richardson, CEO of Titanvolt, a UK-based leader at the forefront of advanced energy storage for the built environment, was at MIPM to talk to investors and customers; "we've had a lot of discussions with investors around the bigger picture, the 10-year plan looking at what Titanvolt can do in the future." Titanvolt, based in Newcastle aims to become a global brand says Richardson "There's cu...