Insurance News Archive
Commercial properties in Europe not in bubble
While there are some central European areas where the residential property prices are rising too quickly, commercial properties are still available at reasonable costs, according to experts.
In the Baltics and areas tourists flock to the housing market is overheating, but the experts say that there is little risk of a bubble bursting in the sectors of offices, retail property and other commercial properties.
"In commercial property, we are still slightly to substantially below western European levels," Karl Petrikovics, chief executive of Austria's Immoeast, Europe's biggest property firms, told attendees at the Reuters Central European Investment Summit.
"In residential property, there may be some overheating in certain specific areas. But in general, based on economic forecasts, I'm very optimistic for real estate," he added.
As well as being resistant to a bubble that might be forming in some residential property markets on the continent, another expert told the summit that European commercial property had faced up well to the summer credit crunch.
Franz Jurkowitsch, chief executive of hotel developer Warimpex, said: "For existing property I don't see much risk... For the near future I don't see any negative impact (of the credit crunch)."
24 Oct 2007
