Strong demand for residential across all major European cities

Investor sentiment towards European residential markets has turned increasingly positive, according to Hilke Nijmeijer, senior portfolio manager at CBRE Investment Management, speaking to Real Asset Media at EXPO Real 2025.

“You can sense there’s more market momentum now. There’s more positivism, opportunism about the markets,” she said. “There is more interest and enthusiasm from investors to actually step into the residential markets, both in more affordable housing and PBSA.”

Nijmeijer said the improved mood is translating into higher deal flow and stronger confidence across the sector. “That mood is positive. That also means that there’s more deal flow coming, and, yes, there’s a strong focus there.”

She noted that the uncertainty affecting broader real estate markets has eased, particularly regarding rental regulation and taxation. “If you specifically look at the residential market, the regulation on rent, on taxation is having a more direct influence,” she said. “That’s something to navigate through, but that’s also stabilising nowadays. And that is not holding back to invest in the residential market, where there’s still an attractive risk-return profile to step into.”

According to Nijmeijer, both geopolitical and regulatory conditions are now more predictable, giving investors greater confidence to re-enter or expand in residential. “So, I think geopolitical, it is more stable now and also on the rental regulation, it’s more stable. So, positive green lights for investing in a residential market,” she said.

She added that demand remains strongest in large Western European cities, where supply shortages continue to support rental growth. “Basically, all cities in Western Europe are of interest. The major cities where there’s a huge demand supply imbalance, so the fundamentals for residential are right.”

CBRE Investment Management is also identifying opportunities in higher-yielding markets. “We have more specific interests nowadays in high-yielding countries like Ireland, Italy, Spain, but also looking at the risk-return profile. So, a wider interest than just those countries.”