Approx 250 EPRA members and guests at the Greek Zappeion, September 6, 2007, paid tribute to Nick van Ommen’s stewardship as the First Chief Executive Officer of their organisation with a standing ovation. Serge Fautré, chairman of EPRA said: “On behalf of the Management Board of EPRA I would like to warmly thank Nick for his leadership during the difficult ‘start-up phase’ of the organisation. During his tenure EPRA membership has expanded to over 200, the association’s finance are on a sound footing, we have an extremely popular annual conference and, most importantly, he has assisted the European property industry in achieving great strides forward. Tax efficient REIT structures are now in place, or pending, in most of the major markets in Europe, including France, the UK and Germany, and the investment base for real estate stocks has expanded drastically,” he concluded.

George Alogoskoufis (play video), Minister of Economy and Finance of Greece pointed to Greece’s expanding exports and successful tourism industry, decreasing unemployment figures (11.3% to 7.7%) and the €1.5 billion foreign investment in Greece, which looks a comparatively small figure to me.

The question is, how could the CMBS crisis have happened? This billion-dollar financial real estate market can hardly be called a playground for naïve children. What and where it did go wrong? We heard the answers in several sessions at the EPRA conference. I heard one of the best explanations a few days later in Paris at the GRI Europe event. Henri Alster, the talented chairman of GRI gave a brief and sharp summary on how the ‘crisis’ got started (an audio version of his story will follow soon, it’s good) in his introduction of GRIkeynote speaker Lewis Alexander, Chief Economist Citigroup, who gave a solid analysis of the current situation from a US point of view. (Video will follow soon)

Sustainability is another keyword. I was particularly impressed by the EPRA sustainability session moderated by Tony Ciochetti (play video), professor at MIT who said: “A recent RICS study showed that 70% of all energy consumption occurs in buildings, on transport and other construction. Globally, real estate construction consumes 25% of the world’s energy. US real estate operations consume 40% of all US energy.” Personally, I think he may have been a bit hard on his own country by not mentioning the great energy saving program of the

state of California, led by The Roosevelt Institute which, while levels of energy usage in the US as a whole have practically doubled, in the same period have stabilized or have even been reduced in the state of California. It shows that it can be done, even in the USA.
On the photo: The Academic Circle together with FLTR: Nick van Ommen,EPRA; Tony Ciochetti, MIT; Graeme Newell, University of Western Sydney and Robert Watson, ProLogis.

Robert Watson, CEO, Prologis, who joined the same session stated: “Prologis will be carbon neutral by 2010,” (video will follow soon) while Graeme Newell, professor at University of Western Sydney gave an impressive worldwide academic view on sustainability (video will follow soon).

The EPRA Best Performer Large Cap Award 2006, sponsored by LaSalle Investment Management, went to IVG Immobilien for a total return in local currency of 82% in 2006. The winner of the EPRA Best Performer Small/Mid Cap Award 2006, sponsored by Kempen & Co, is Marylebone Warwick Balfour for a total return in local currency of over 62% in 2006.