Blackstone’s head of real estate in Europe, Anthony Myers, has signalled a shift towards selling assets.
Speaking at the ULI European conference in Paris, Myers, said the world’s largest private equity real estate investor had been a net buyer from 2011 to 2015.
However, he said: “Today we have reached an equilibrium, especially when you look at some assets, and believe it is a good time to sell.”
Myers said that the move had come through a change in investor sentiment from Asia and in particular the Middle East, where oil price shifts and turbulent economic conditions had prompted some pull back from investors.
Blackstone has been aggressively building its Logicor platform in Europe and Myers said that the drive towards shed investment had been driven by the growth in e-commerce. “We’ve been big believers that e-commerce is going up and that it will drive a need for more space,” he said.
Myers added that his company was keeping an eye on what the emergence of AirBnB would have on the hotel markets as users increasingly turn to the site rather than short-term hotel options for weekend breaks.
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