Today Jean-Jacques café hosted the CRE Special roundtable, which focused on investment trends in the commercial real estate market.
How are different segments of the commercial real estate market behaving in crisis conditions? Which types of real estate are worth investing in today? What risks do investors face? These and other questions were the topic of discussion for experts at the CRE Special roundtable.
Svetlana Kuzmina, Director of Asset Management at AVICA Property Investors, noted that in addition to the associated risks a crisis also presents many opportunities for developers and investors. “This is a good time for developers to take a break from the race and look around, to reassess their land holdings, to create a powerful analytical base and perhaps buy some land that previously was not offered on the market. Property owners have the opportunity to analyze their ratio of revenues and expenses, to find a way to optimize this ratio, to reconsider their current tenant mix in order to lower future risks,” Svetlana stated.
All the experts agreed that today it is rather difficult to forecast the volume of investment in Russian real estate due to geopolitical factors. At the same time, apartments and street retail remain the most stable segments. On the whole, participants of the discussion noted the lack of unique high-quality projects on the market that could evoke interest among investors.
AVICA
AVICA Property Investors was created in 2008 and is the investment management firm for the direct investment fund Romanov Property Holdings Fund (50% owned by RD Group). At the end of 2013 the value of the fund’s assets exceeded $1 billion and they include such properties as the Romanov Dvor business center, the Vremena Goda and Dream House shopping centers, and the hypermarket OBI Borovskoye.