The AFIRE Podcast

After the postponement of the landmark international trade fair Expo Real in 2020, AFIRE was pleased to return to Munich, Germany last month for Expo Real 2021.

Running from October 11 to 13 and held at the Messe München exhibition center, this year’s Expo Real had a diminished attendance compared to previous years—due largely to still-active travel restrictions inhibiting frictionless international travel. But the event still welcomed more than 19,000 visitors from 52 countries, and nearly 2,000 exhibitors, all sharing an optimistic view about the future of the real estate industry within and beyond Europe.

Adjusting for the “new normal” of post-pandemic real estate exhibitions, AFIRE replaced its annual Expo Real brunch gathering for an intimate, members-only dinner on October 12 at Brenner Opengrille, providing a space for members to reconnect in person after more than a year of Zoom calls and social distancing.

AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson also joined members on-site at the exhibition center for a series of candid conversations with several Europe-based AFIRE member leaders sharing their views about asset types, investment trends, and emergent challenges and opportunities for US real estate investing.

This episode (out of five) features Joao Nuno Madeira de Andrade, a Board Member at Fidelidade Property Europe, the real estate arm of the Fidelidade Insurance Company Group. Since 1808, Fidelidade has protected the future of families, companies, and of Portugal itself. As market leader in the life and non-life segments, the insurance company brings its sheer size, solidity and credibility to join with innovation, as one of the company’s core values. Its strategy is based on the development of innovative products, which could make the difference in people’s lives.​​

Joao joined Fidelidade in 2016, previously serving as head of Portugal and Italy for Internos Global Investors. Before that he oversaw Southern Europe investments for Commerz Real AG, and served as director for both Aquirre Hewman and DTZ in Portugal. He is currently a board member of AFIRE.

After the postponement of the landmark international trade fair Expo Real in 2020, AFIRE was pleased to return to Munich, Germany last month for Expo Real 2021.

Running from October 11 to 13 and held at the Messe München exhibition center, this year’s Expo Real had a diminished attendance compared to previous years—due largely to still-active travel restrictions inhibiting frictionless international travel. But the event still welcomed more than 19,000 visitors from 52 countries, and nearly 2,000 exhibitors, all sharing an optimistic view about the future of the real estate industry within and beyond Europe.

Adjusting for the “new normal” of post-pandemic real estate exhibitions, AFIRE replaced its annual Expo Real brunch gathering for an intimate, members-only dinner on October 12 at Brenner Opengrille, providing a space for members to reconnect in person after more than a year of Zoom calls and social distancing.

AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson also joined members on-site at the exhibition center for a series of candid conversations with several Europe-based AFIRE member leaders sharing their views about asset types, investment trends, and emergent challenges and opportunities for US real estate investing.

This episode (out of five) features Janice Stanton, an Executive Managing Director in the Capital Markets group at Cushman & Wakefield. She is responsible for advising global investors on the real estate investment markets. Ms. Stanton has more than 25 years of industry experience in real estate investment research and analytics, finance, and pension fund management.

Ms. Stanton has managed more than $13 billion on behalf of insurance companies and pension funds. Her work has encompassed the capital markets (REITs and CMBS) as well as the private real estate markets. Ms. Stanton joined Cushman & Wakefield from Equinox Investments, a boutique investment management firm where she was a founding partner. Prior to forming Equinox, Ms. Stanton served as a portfolio manager responsible for managing pension fund investments in the real estate division of MetLife and SSR Realty (BlackRock).

Ms. Stanton received a BA from Wellesley College and is a recipient of the YWCA’s Academy of Women Achievers Award. She was also named one of the Women Real Estate Leaders for the 21st Century by Real Estate Weekly Magazine and was chosen as one of 13 Stars to Watch by Commercial Property News. She has been published in the Journal of RE Management.

After the postponement of the landmark international trade fair Expo Real in 2020, AFIRE was pleased to return to Munich, Germany last month for Expo Real 2021.

Running from October 11 to 13 and held at the Messe München exhibition center, this year’s Expo Real had a diminished attendance compared to previous years—due largely to still-active travel restrictions inhibiting frictionless international travel. But the event still welcomed more than 19,000 visitors from 52 countries, and nearly 2,000 exhibitors, all sharing an optimistic view about the future of the real estate industry within and beyond Europe.

Adjusting for the “new normal” of post-pandemic real estate exhibitions, AFIRE replaced its annual Expo Real brunch gathering for an intimate, members-only dinner on October 12 at Brenner Opengrille, providing a space for members to reconnect in person after more than a year of Zoom calls and social distancing.

AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson also joined members on-site at the exhibition center for a series of candid conversations with several Europe-based AFIRE member leaders sharing their views about asset types, investment trends, and emergent challenges and opportunities for US real estate investing.

This episode (out of five) features Martin J. Brühl of Union Investment Real Estate. In his role as Chief Investment Officer, Martin J. Brühl oversees all real estate transactions of Union Investment Real Estate worldwide. With assets under management totaling more than EUR 45 billion, Union Investment is a leading real estate investment manager providing a variety of investment solutions including non-listed retail and institutional open-ended funds, special funds and separate accounts.

Martin has close to 28 years of industry experience and has worked for groups like DTZ, Arthur Andersen and Cushman & Wakefield. Trained in banking and equipped with a degree in real estate appraisal and finance of City University Business School in London, Martin is Past President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and previous Chairman of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) whose nearly 200 member firms manage $3 trillion of real estate assets globally.

(Featuring Melinda McLaughlin, Senior Vice President of Research, Prologis)

Urbanization, digitalization, and demographics are the key trends to watch for understanding the future of logistics real estate.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/supplychangecast/

The global pandemic has forever altered the logistics real estate landscape. Supply chain decisions have become more holistic, more data-driven, and more urgent than ever.

Underlying this shift are the same forces of urbanization, digitalization, and demographics that have changed the way we live, work, and shop over the past few decades. The future of the supply chain and its concurrent effect on retail will determine demand for logistics real estate for years to come. So what are the trends driving demand for logistics real estate in a post-pandemic world?

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Melinda McLaughlin of Prologis discusses the demands of supply logistics in the age of e-commerce, as well as the changes the pandemic brought to the market. Her insights highlight broader trends in the future of logistics real estate.

(Featuring Secretary Rodney E. Slater, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs; Congressman Bill Shuster, Senior Policy Advisor, Squire Patton Boggs; Caren Street, Principal, Squire Patton Boggs)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/restructuringinfracast02/

Much of the way a city works depends on where you are, and ultimately, where you want to go. And this place—where you want to go—is the source of critical questions about our lives within cities:

How can I get there? Can I afford to live there? Is there a job for me there? Am I safe there, and do I have a fair chance?

While many of us knew that our urban spaces weren’t working equally well for everyone, disparities in access, affordability, and opportunity have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and the list of questions between here and there has doubled in size. Meanwhile, builders, owners, operators, and city leaders have an obligation to find answers—while also trying to ask questions of their own.

Some are looking to President Biden’s infrastructure agenda as a potential source of solutions for more accessible, equitable, and economically successful cities. But anyone paying attention to the events at street level since the emergence of the pandemic understands that conditions and opportunities in urban contexts are complex, multilayered, and occasionally difficult to quantify.

As the current infrastructure agenda continues to evolve in legislation, AFIRE Podcast host Gunnar Branson recently sat down with Rodney Slater, Bill Shuster, and Caren Street of Squire Patton Boggs—infrastructure policy leaders with combined decades of deep local and national experience—to talk about the state of US infrastructure, and where cities can (and should) go next.

(Featuring Secretary Rodney E. Slater, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs; Congressman Bill Shuster, Senior Policy Advisor, Squire Patton Boggs; Caren Street, Principal, Squire Patton Boggs)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/restructuringinfracast01/

Much of the way a city works depends on where you are, and ultimately, where you want to go. And this place—where you want to go—is the source of critical questions about our lives within cities:

How can I get there? Can I afford to live there? Is there a job for me there? Am I safe there, and do I have a fair chance?

While many of us knew that our urban spaces weren’t working equally well for everyone, disparities in access, affordability, and opportunity have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and the list of questions between here and there has doubled in size. Meanwhile, builders, owners, operators, and city leaders have an obligation to find answers—while also trying to ask questions of their own.

Some are looking to President Biden’s infrastructure agenda as a potential source of solutions for more accessible, equitable, and economically successful cities. But anyone paying attention to the events at street level since the emergence of the pandemic understands that conditions and opportunities in urban contexts are complex, multilayered, and occasionally difficult to quantify.

As the current infrastructure agenda continues to evolve in legislation, AFIRE Podcast host Gunnar Branson recently sat down with Secretary Rodney Slater, Congressman Bill Shuster, and Caren Street of Squire Patton Boggs—infrastructure policy leaders with combined decades of deep local and national experience—to talk about the state of US infrastructure, and where cities can (and should) go next.

(Featuring Matt Slepin, Founder, Terra Search Partners)

The job market is changing. From worker shortages to an ever younger work force, hiring processes are being forced to evolve. The real estate industry is no exception.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/impactcast/

While many recruiters are experiencing a busier job market than ever, retirement is on the horizon for much of the current work force, especially executives. Businesses are training future executives at a rapid pace, but demand for more diverse talent is only ramping up. Further, companies need to reevaluate what makes a solid leader; a successful salesperson doesn’t always make a great CEO, after all.

In this episode of the AFIRE Podcast with Gunnar Branson, Matt Slepin, Founder of Terra Search Partners and host of the Leading Voices in Real Estate podcast, discusses the current climate for executive talent, recruitment, and training in the real estate industry. He explains how the search for executives in real estate is creating friction for hiring managers, the difficulties in searching for diverse candidates, and the excitement for new people entering the market.

(Featuring Michael Bull, CCIM, President, Bull Realty)

When casual conversations have become scarce and the world has gone online, how do we keep conversations going?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/conversationcast

During the last year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging markets, and rapid changes in technology have converged to turn networking on its head. In this brave new world, investors need a new way to share what they've learned—and learn from others in return (virtually, of course). So, where do we begin? How do we have more of the conversations we used to take for granted, and how do we make them count?

On this episode of the AFIRE podcast, Michael Bull, CEO and founder of Bull Realty and host of America's Commercial Real Estate Show, explains how to listen carefully and ask the right questions. His advice clears up digital communications to inform commercial real estate, as he does on his own podcast. He also shares insights on why Atlanta is so intriguing to investors this year, as well as the impacts of political changes in the city.

(Featuring Max Shepherd, Director of Global Real Assets, Sheffield Haworth, London, and Jannah Babasa, Senior Associate, Global Real Assets, Sheffield Haworth, New York)

As the global life sciences sector continues to grow in real estate, highly specialized skills and experience will be the keys to success.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/lifesciencescast/

In a year of poor performance in some commercial real estate sectors, investors and developers are eyeing up a move into life sciences, but do the risks outweigh the potential benefits?

The life sciences industry consists of companies operating in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, biomedical technologies, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and food processing. Recent growth, partially driven by the pandemic, has centered on the health and medical side of the industry, including businesses dedicated to developing, producing, and commercializing innovative treatments, diagnostic tools, equipment, and software to improve and prolong lives.

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Max Shepherd and Jannah Babasa of Sheffield Haworth examine how the pandemic highlighted the resilience of life sciences compared with other commercial real estate sectors. This has led to changes in government policy and increases in public and private funding for the sector.

(Featuring Stacy Krumin, Partner, Real Estate Practice & Global Board Member, Squire Patton Boggs, and John Thomas, Partner, Real Estate Practice Leader, Squire Patton Boggs)

The future is bright for build-to-rent housing, and institutional investors are increasingly looking at investing in the sector.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/buildtorentcast/

Build-to-rent is hot. Demographics; economic changes; generational shifts in desires, values and priorities; and a pandemic have come together to accelerate growth in what was already one of the fastest growing classes of real estate investment.

Demand for single-family rental homes continues to exceed supply, partly fueled by a surge in demand for rental product from high-income renters. Over the past year and a half, this sector has attracted nine- and 10- figure investments from well-known investors.

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Stacy Krumin and John Thomas examine the best ways to take advantage of this expanding market while staying mindful of its unique challenges.