We (almost) made it happen

News that I felt went through pretty much un-noticed in the last month was the publication of the latest Jones Lang LaSalle transparency index (you can register for free on JLL website and download the study here). For the first time since inception, the German market is part of the “tier 1” countries, along side with the UK, Australia, France and 12 other countries. More precisely Germany is quotes by JLL as the 10th more transparent market among the 81 markets covered by the study, and 6th more transparent among the 34 European market surveyed.



More importantly JLL study highlighted that the increase of the transparency in the German real estate market is linked to the introduction of G-REIT. “It is in Germany where the greatest advance has been made, a result of improved market data beyond the office sector and its developing REIT market” say the study. “the REIT structure has now been in place in Germany for three years, and governance continues to improve, and although the numbers converting has been limited, a fourth property company could be granted REIT status in 2010”

Overall I am not sure that our investor feels that the German market is more transparent today than it used to be in the last two years. However, having one of the leading research and real estate advisory firms crediting alstria, Hamborner and Fair Value with a combine market capitalization of around EURO 675 million (of which alstria is EURO 450 million), for making the largest European property market more transparent feels good. Although it does not necessarily feels right.

Olivier