A greater diversity of investments is the key to riding out any possible downturn agreed a panel of senior institutional investors at the ULI conference in Paris today.
The panel consisted of Roger Orf, partner at Apollo Global Management; Chris Morrish, head of Europe at GIC; Anthony Myers, head of Europe at Blackstone; Isabelle Scemama head of AXA IM Real Assets; and Rob Kochis, a principal at Townsend Group.
The group argued that a diverse portfolio ranging from alternatives to long-term income-producing prime assets was the key to making it through any coming downturn.
Morrish said: “Increasing urbanisation means we will have to get used to more mixed-use schemes,”citing the company’s redevelopment of Broadgate, EC2, where the sovereign wealth fund is ”trying to make places exciting to be”.
For Scemama, who sees the market in its mid to late stages in Europe, the focus is on AXA’s debt fund and the increasing globalisation of the book.
Morrish warned that applying the same model across territories could backfire. “You can’t assume one will work for all,” he said, and used the example of retirement home purchases in Germany where applying a British model was unsuccessful due to a differing home ownership dynamic.
Myers said his firm was “increasingly focused on long-term global trends”, such as e-commerce and technology industry driven sites like Berlin or London’s Shoreditch. It was also looking at more far flung locations, such as India.
For now though, the group felt that Europe’s accelerating growth over the next year made it a strong market to be in, especially Germany, where Kochis said his US investor clients had moved into from London and Paris a year ago.
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