At the Mipim real estate conference in Cannes, Italian insurer Generali's head of real estate in Western Europe, Sébastien Pezet, spoke to CoStar News' Luke Haynes and Business Immo's Luc-Étienne Rouillard Lafond.
In terms of the mood, Pezet said: "I think the the key takeaway after two days, if I can say, perhaps compared to last year, I think we have reached the bottom [of the market], in terms of investment activity. People more or less agree on that.
He believes the market is nearing the end of value decreases, too, even though some values on some assets will continue to have a small decrease.
He adds: "People remain nevertheless cautious – cautiously optimistic – if I can say, because the recovery, the positive trend [will] come back, [...] but it's very slow and I think it will be very long."
Last year, at the same conference, Pezet said that there would be some interesting opportunities in the coming quarters, so the interviewers asked whether that was still the case.
"Yes, when I spoke about coming quarters, I included '25, for sure." He suggested opportunities would arrive more slowly than expected, but that they would come back. "Not a lot of opportunities, but some opportunities, for sure, in each of the asset [classes], office, logistics, hotels, etc, etc."