CFA Society Finland’s topical real estate event was held 6 April
Real estate has been a wished for theme in recent member surveys. CFA Society Finland was happy to organize the breakfast event “Real Estate Investments in Finland – the Market after Covid-19”. The gathering took place at Hotel Kämp Paavo Nurmi cabinets.
CFA Society Finland board vice president Toni Iivonen, CFA, acted as the host and the moderator for the discussion. We were fortunate to be able to listen to various experts in the real estate field as our guest speakers included Juhana Brotherus, Chief Economist and Business Director at Hypo, Heidi Falkenbach, Assistant Professor of Real Estate Economics at Aalto University, Olli-Pekka Mustonen, Head of Research and Digitalization at Reagle and Markku Mäkiaho, Managing director at OP Real Estate Asset Management.
Mr. Mustonen presented briefly on real estate situation in today’s Finland and what are the movements currently in the market: what real estate is being bought and where, who is buying and who is selling. The future with investments in office buildings, shopping malls and logistics space is especially interesting as we are hopefully getting into old normal gradually but at the same time our economic situation is under the mercy of geopolitical threats.
The panel discussion provided the audience extensive amount of professional insight into many current topics. Inflation has been a central concern lately and will affect the way retail and institutional investors behave. Inflation as well as the changing demographic will have a polarizing effect in the market. The panel covered demand for office space, and the possible changes as future work might include remote working more than before. Shopping malls and the role of retail business have been under turmoil in the tailwind of the pandemic and increase in online shopping. Another factor is the difficult situation in service sector and how it will recover after the pandemic. Where there are jobs and services, there are people, and demand for real estate.
One of the most important topics is the green transition. The future demands for building material and energy technology are still unspecified. The overall possibilities for the real estate infrastructure to comply with the coming regulations is an important question. However we know that the green transition is here and both investors and regulators are demanding results and compliance. This and other issues discussed create an interesting situation in real estate market. Even the near future is unknown, and forecasters will have a real task ahead to estimate where the real estate market will go next.
From left: Juhana Brotherus, Markku Mäkiaho, Toni Iivonen, Olli-Pekka Mustonen and Heidi Falkenbach.