COVID-19

The whole ‘death of the office’ shtick has been subject to many articles over the last six months, but this is not one of them. It is, however, about how offices remain an investable asset, how the perception of offices is changing and why family offices should be looking to acquire them sooner rather than later.

Currently, there is a unique window of opportunity, particularly in the regions, as a large chunk of the institutional and fund investor population is currently sitting on the side-lines.

Covid-19 did not affect all European commercial real estate in the same way—hotels and non-food retail assets were particularly affected, but leasing activity in logistics was very resilient.

Amundi’s likely, but not certain, central economic scenario is an increase in global GDP in 2021 however, the recovery may be bumpy, with epidemic outbreaks and lockdown measures through the fourth quarter of 2021.

But what are the opportunities and challenges in real estate for 2021? And what are the overall trends for the asset-class?

Elisabetta Fabri, family principal of the private Italian luxury hospitality group Starhotels, is helping women in business achieve their potential by launching a new vocational training initiative.

The programme was among the measures by the multi award-winning second-generation president and chief executive in response to the impacts of Covid-19 on the world’s hotel, travel and tourism industries.

Rajesh Dempo, a third-generation scion of Goa’s prominent Dempo business dynasty, says his diversified Vision Dempo group was expanding at pace just before the Covid-19 outbreak in India, but strategic lessons are now being learned from handling the crisis to enhance operations and opportunities.

Dempo finds himself at the sharp end of the coronavirus pandemic’s impacts on society with his dynamic group of companies trading in real estate, hospitality, healthcare, education and film production and entertainment sectors.