Investor sentiment remains sharply divided as real estate markets navigate an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, with structural sectors offering the clearest opportunities for 2026, according to Petra Blazkova, head of research and strategy at Catella Group, the European real estate investment manager.
Speaking to Real Asset Media at Mipim 2026, she said the firm has adopted a cautious but forward-looking stance in its latest outlook.
“Catella just published their house view for 2026 and we call it defensive positioning, but also it's a 'new spring', as a new spring is beginning,” she said. “But in this quite uncertain market, you have to think about your investment conviction very, very carefully — in the uncertain world that we have.”
Blazkova said the firm has shifted its focus toward structural opportunities, particularly within the living sector, where long-term demand drivers remain intact.
“We structured, we looked at it more from the structural opportunities, which is anything from living,” she said.
Within this, affordable and operational housing formats are emerging as key areas of interest.
“We like the affordable housing, obviously something that people can reach, operational living, whether it would be senior housing or some of the flex living. People like their flexibility when it comes, when we look into the future.”
Beyond living, Blazkova highlighted a shift in relative sector attractiveness compared with recent years. Retail is showing renewed potential, while central business district offices are beginning to present selective opportunities. Logistics, she suggested, continues to sit between cyclical and structural dynamics.
“And among the technical opportunities, I think what's becoming far more interesting than in the previous year would be retail,” she said. “CBD offices also, we see some opportunities there and logistics sit somewhere in between.”
She added that sentiment at this year’s Mipim reflects the broader uncertainty in the market, with little consensus among investors.
“So this year Mipim is quite unusual to many others that we have been before. And what I hear in the last few days is that the views on the outlook and what's going to happen are quite extreme between the very positive and very negative,” she said.
“So, there is nothing in between really. So, there is quite a bipolarity among the attendants.”
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