The co-founder of Corestate Capital Group, one of Europe’s largest real estate platforms, and former senior investor at Cerberus Capital, said that the marked increase in interest rates seen in recent years means that there are numerous assets in need of a cash injection.

‘Let’s say someone purchased an office building a few years ago with 20% or 30% vacancy and his plan was to increase occupancy by doing some refurbishments and then [taking it back to] market,’ he said.

‘Then interest rates went up dramatically, so he spends all his liquidity to pay the bank. He doesn't have any money to do the refurbishments to attract the new tenants. So, you can step into the transaction and tell them “look, let's do a joint venture”.’

He added: ‘So, we can inject, say, €5 mln and the senior lender will then extend his financing by another five years. We then put in a further €5 mln for the refurbishments, get increased rents and exit the asset. Then everyone is happy. You have to find a solution to buy time, to work on the asset and create rental income.’

However, Landschreiber emphasised that such a strategy is only effective for investors with deep knowledge of real estate. ‘It’s all about active management,’ he said. ‘During the last 10 years, a lot of people who are not really experienced in the real estate business made a lot of money because the market increased dramatically.

‘Even if you made a lot of mistakes, you earned money because the market was stronger than your mistakes. Now, I think you can only make money if you roll up your sleeves and do active asset management. You have to do something; you have to build something.’