Indeed, in Central and Eastern Europe, there appears to be few if any clouds at all on the horizon, at least for the logistics segment. An endless supply of money from around the world is heading for the logistics sector in that region as investors seek to tap into its growth potential, Ben Bannatyne, president of Prologis Europe, told a recent PropertyEU briefing in Warsaw.

Logistics remain an investor darling with the flourishing e-commerce sector continuing to drive new development, but it is by no means the only area where investors see potential for expansion. Across Europe, a growing number of big and bold towers and mix-use projects are under construction as the economic recovery fuels a need for office and housing space. Long frozen following the financial crisis, developers' pipelines are now filled with a string of both shiny new projects and redevelopments across the region's cities, writes our managing editor Marianne Korteweg in a special feature on development in PropertyEU Magazine's H2 Outlook edition out now.

New skyscrapers
London is no longer the only big city in Europe where building cranes dot the skyline. Hotel and residential developments are a clear trend in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the picture is no different in other European cities. Around 20 new high-rise buildings are set to grace Frankfurt's skyline over the next five years and Paris is also seeking to capitalise on Brexit and seven new skyscrapers have been proposed for the La Défense business district.

Further east, Warsaw accounts for three of the 20 largest office projects under construction or in the pipeline, according to our research. The Slovakian capital of Bratislava accounts for two of the top 20 projects including the biggest of them all – the 176,000 m2 Alfa Park led by Slovak developer HB Reavis.

In terms of investment, we learned at our Germany Outlook briefing that continental Europe's largest economy is headed for another record year while positive sentiment following the election of Emmanuelle Macron has put France back on the map for foreign investors.

Dutch recovery on track
Our Outlook briefing on the Netherlands revealed that the Dutch recovery is on track while a new dawn is breaking for Iberia following the strong bounce-back of Spain and Portugal and a more sustainable market which is attracting a new wave of investors. And even in the UK, where investment is losing ground to Germany as the Brexit begins to bite, London continues to outperform as the top city of influence across the region.

No doubt, the proptech revolution will create some storm clouds in the future as the new battleground in real estate shifts from location to technology, but innovations on this front also represent opportunities, experts said at our inaugural briefing on this topic.

The finalists of the world's first proptech awards hosted this spring in Berlin by Hamburg-based Union Investment certainly give cause for optimism. Innovations in the field of data collection and defect management as well as new tools that are harnessing virtual reality and other technologies are already having a positive impact on our industry.

The rate of adoption may be accelerating and creating a new momentum, but that cannot alter the fact that there is still plenty of room to run in Europe in this cycle.

Judi Seebus
Group Editor PropertyEU