Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2011 | Page 70

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Business
Aulanko property
investment convention gave
cause for optimism.

R

eal estate professionals met
in Aulanko, Hämeenlinna,
in November 2010 with a new
sense of momentum, as strings
of top-level speakers gave their
views on what to expect from
the future.
In one of the most anticipated panel discussions of Annual Convention of Property Investment Prospects, top officials
from the Greater Helsinki Area
– Olavi Louko (Espoo), Hannu
Penttilä (Helsinki) and Jukka
Peltomäki (Vantaa) – sat down
to talk metropolitan development. The Helsinki Metropolitan Area will stay on the growth
path for decades to come, and it
is up to the decision-makers of
the region’s three big cities to
make sure that everybody is on
the same page.
The panellists were of the
opinion that the 2010’s will go
down in history as a “golden
era of construction” since there
are so many large, exciting projects underway. However, the
State of Finland would like to
see one city in place of the present three. The panellists countered by saying that they have
nothing against such plans, but
they criticised the Government
for being a difficult negotiating
partner.

68 Nordicum

Early Bird Market
Coinciding with the metropolitan dialogue, there are already
those trying to sniff out new
trends in the market. Michael
Schönach from Catella listed
several real estate subsectors
which remain underdeveloped
in Finland. One such field is
healthcare – due to e.g. demographic reasons – but Schönach
cautions against hype. Also public sector is expected to open
up, but those contracts may be
long time coming. In addition,
Schönach expects to see largescale logistics centres ripen into interesting options as they
become available in the investment market.
Tapani Piri from Jones
Lang LaSalle traced the market
evolution from the crazy days of
2006–2007 to the present situ-

ation. In a heated market, property buyers were so desperate to
strike a deal they would jump
through just about any hoops.
Overkill was evident as twophased auctions with full vendor due diligences and parallel
buyer side due diligences entered the scene. In the current
situation, however, Piri points
out that one should play nice
with the buyer – the negotiations are now more balanced.

Greener Communities
With Climate Change pressing
on, green construction is clearly
here to stay – to give the seminar
participants the latest, there was
Director David Wood from Harvard. He noted that responsible
investors are turning to environmental alternatives as tenants
keep demanding greener prem-

ises. Entire sustainable communities are making their entrance,
such as JESSICA in Europe and
Sustainable Communities Initiative in the USA.
Beyond such projects,
there’s a glimpse of entire sustainable cities, which would
utilise public-private partnerships to achieve holistic infrastructure. Wood is expecting investment vehicles to follow the
visionary ideas which are already out there. The big question is, whether the green wind
is strong enough to carry such
heavy load: is there room (and
time) for the market to develop?
A Finnish version of a sustainable community is the Low2No city block which will be
raised in Jätkäsaari in Helsinki.
Jätkäsaari is a Sitra pilot which
will examine whether a zero carbon urban project can be re X