About a year ago, we discussed the difficult situation on the investment market. As far as I remember, you expected that it would last 2–3 years. Are you still holding to this forecast?
Georg Blaschke, head of real estate finance for the CEE & Benelux, Helaba: It seems that our predictions were not too conservative. The markets are continuing to wait for a cut in interest rates, which could kick off new activity. These cuts haven’t really happened yet, although the ECB took a first step towards this in June – and that’s why the markets are still in a wait-and-see mode. Due to the uncertainty, investors have now also adjusted their real estate investment ratios towards fixed-income instruments – and that means that the money wall has somehow become less of a wall.
What are the biggest challenges for the market and your company at the moment?
I think the last two years have shown us that sustainability is here to stay. New green assets are the flavour