Thank you to all those companies which submitted their Outlook 2021 contributions.

We managed to crowbar several of them into our latest issue and apologies to those that were left on the cutting room floor. With so many large, detailed reports on offer, it was a big task to cherry-pick viewpoints that did not overlap too much or become repetitive. In some cases, there was a slight divergence of views such as the extent to which the European market will see ‘distressed’ deals, which we felt important to highlight.

The industry’s overriding preoccupation as we start the year seems to be whether vaccines will help us through Covid-19 (though the roll-out is becoming messy, let’s be honest) and whether we can start to look ahead at recovery. One effect of the crisis is that it has only emboldened investors to double down on pre-existing themes such as ‘beds and sheds’. In future magazine editions, we will be drilling down into such strategies, especially asking in the next edition whether there might even be a bubble forming in parts of the residential sector.

I cannot guess better than anyone else what this year will truly bring. However, two themes that are a safe bet in terms of continued reflection in the industry are ESG and diversity.

My colleague Marianne Korteweg has tackled the latter with an indepth feature on women in European real estate, plus a timely piece on European regulation with regard to sustainability. Both ESG and diversity have to be interrogated in this industry and we are doing our bit with these important articles.

We also look at what Brexit may bring for the UK – and European – markets this year after a trading deal finally brought clarity for both sides at the close of 2020. Jane Roberts has been polling market experts, and their views may surprise you.

Finally, in this issue, we introduce the PropertyEU Data Sheet, a monthly summary of recently completed deals, loans, assets put up for sale and sometimes capital raisings in the private market, which we hope you will find useful.

We wholeheartedly hope our readers flourish in 2021, whatever asset class or arena of real estate you play in. And extra good luck to those companies which from this year have agreed new ownership structures or have made big bold moves to keep evolving and transforming such as M7, Oxford, EQT and Exeter.

Robin Marriott
Editor in chief, PropertyEU