Surprising results

Over 5,000 international investors and representatives of financial institutions are heading to MIPIM 2017 where they are expected to discuss geopolitical developments including Brexit, the impact of the tech revolution on real estate and global social changes. The world of real estate is naturally asking itself how the changing political climate on all continents will affect the real estate industry.

This will also be the theme of the panel discussion: “Ousting the Establishment: What’s the Impact on the Real Estate Industry?” with Chris Marlin, President of Lennar International and Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors. While the topic of crowdfunding for real estate is already an established concept, MIPIM is working with Blockchain, a new investment tool for the real estate sector. During the conference “Blockchain: What are the Opportunities & Challenges of Peer to Peer RE,” international experts will discuss the current and future of Blockchain and Bitcoin. However, they will also debate which Blockchain would be the best choice for security and functionality in the real estate branch. The ImmoFokus editorial team will follow these developments and report on them in the summer edition.

And now to the current issue. Our meeting with the Chairman of the Vienna International Airport, Günther Ofner, had already been arranged some time ago. The interview has since gained significant relevance. The Vienna Airport is one of the big players in the European real estate industry. Obviously, one of the major topics of discussion was the negative decision regarding Project 3 runway by the Austrian court. Günther Ofner is convinced, however, that the judgment will be overturned by the supreme administrative court.

In other articles we illustrate Austria as a business location (Page 10), its equity market (Page 18) and the current developments in the different asset classes. We asked our local real estate managers for their opinions about current market developments (Page 86).

We extensively covered the big IFI trend study, which we conducted for the first time in the winter of 2016. With the IFI trend study 2017, the independent and voluntary real estate associations created transparency on the topics of development and trends in the real estate industry. This study is a beginning and a milestone – now the IFI wants to establish a real estate index that will help all the stakeholders get a better impression of the industry. The surprising results can be found starting on page 78.

And last but not least: The PEMA group successfully secured prominent additions to their team in the form of retired Chancellor Werner Faymann and his former press spokesman, Matthias Euler-Rolle, as senior consultants (page 20).

We are curious about it all.

We hope you are, too.