Philippe Cervesi, the president of Corum Asset Management, spoke to Paul Norman, the managing editor of CoStar News, and Luc-Etienne Rouillard Lafond of sister publication Business Immo, at the Mipim conference in Cannes.
Asked about the investment window he had talked about in 2024, he said: "That window started actually in the end of 2022, the beginning of '23, in the environment we all know, interest rates going up, pricing going down, a lot less competition on the markets."
The window is closing, he said: "I don't have a crystal ball. Is it 12 months, is it 15 months?" Cervesi added: ” ’25 might be one of the last years where you can really take profit off that […] moment with a bit less competition."
On sectors, he said: "I think that the sectors are really important here because we've all seen that logistics, for example, as there was still a lot of competition even during the last two years, so difficult for us. We tried and we succeed[ed] to do a few acquisitions mainly in the South of Europe, but it's difficult.
"I think that retail and hotels are definitely back in the game. We all have to remember that five years ago a lot of people were [saying] it's finished, retail is finished, hotel is finished.
"And we see now that they are among the most – let's say, assets that are the more searched by the investors – that a lot of investors are really keen to buy and to put money in those asset classes."
He added investors at Mipim had said would look at offices in the right location or the right tenants and Corum thinks the market over-reacted on offices, because the pricing is still quite attractive.
Discussing the movement of French funds into other European countries, he highlighted the importance of people on the ground in those countries to advise and protect investors.
For more from Cervesi, including his own company's preferred sectors and likely moves, watch the video above.