Real estate investment firms’ future looks better
Things are looking up for real estate investment companies in Greece as the slide in the prices of commercial properties they have in their portfolios appears to be coming to its end.
The first clear sign of the new trend was the return to profit of blue chip Eurobank Properties. This week the company announced after-tax profits of 2.7 million euros in 2013, bringing an end to three years of losses. It had lost 28.1 million euros in 2012.
A key factor in the company’s return to profit last year was the acquisition of two properties leased by Praktiker and one apiece by Carrefour-Marinopoulos and McDonald’s.
The commercial properties market is expected to stabilize in 2014, according to industry insiders, although it will continue to suffer pressures in the first half of the year.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Athens University of Economics and Business on the course of the professional buildings market in the next six months, 66.3 percent of experts forecast that prices will continue to decline, while 53.6 percent said that demand will be even smaller.
