The 2026 ULI Europe Conference brought together real estate leaders to take stock of where the European market stands today and where it is heading. Across a series of sessions covering investment strategy, capital markets, climate risk and technology, several clear themes emerged. We report from Berlin to summarise the five most significant ones.
1. Europe is looking more attractive than the US right now
A consistent theme across sessions was that Europe currently offers a more compelling entry point for real estate investment than the United States. With interest rates in the Eurozone meaningfully lower than in the US, panellists argued that investors can generate real cash-on-cash returns today without waiting for future capital appreciation. The network of established gateway cities, from London and Paris to Warsaw and beyond, provides a structural stability that US markets, with their shifting growth gravities, cannot always match. Meanwhile, US institutional investors were described as broadly disappointed with recent real estate performance and reluctant to allocate further to the asset class, let alone outside their home market.
2. Liquidity is returning, but slowly and unevenly
The question of when liquidity would fully resume dominated discussions. Panellists noted that the US market is moving faster, partly because American investors are more willing to take write-downs and move on. In Europe, the process is slower, hampered by a more bank-dependent capital markets structure and lingering uncertainty over where interest rates will settle. Speakers pointed to a handful of high-profile transactions, including major hotel and casino deals, as early positive signals. The consensus was that the cycle may just be beginning, but that meaningful deal flow remains concentrated and selective rather than broad-based.
3. AI is reshaping which assets win and lose
The intersection of artificial intelligence and real estate emerged as one of the conference's most debated topics. On the positive side, logistics assets stand to benefit as warehouse operations become increasingly automated and the value of the building itself grows alongside the productivity inside it. Residential and hospitality assets are expected to capture efficiency gains through smarter property management. On the losing side, conventional office space faces structural pressure as the white-collar workforce shrinks. Student housing also drew scrutiny, with speakers questioning whether the fundamental demand drivers remain intact as AI transforms the academic world. The overall message: sector-level thinking is giving way to analysing the specific intersection of asset type, location and technology exposure.
4. Insurance costs and climate risk are becoming material operating factors
Speakers representing the insurance industry made clear that the days of treating property insurance as a predictable background cost are over. The frequency and severity of climate-related loss events are both rising, and that shift is feeding directly into premiums. For owners and developers, this means insurance now represents a meaningfully larger share of operating costs than it did even a few years ago. At the same time, insurers are increasingly taking an advisory role, working with developers on building design, fire prevention and resilience measures to reduce exposure before damage occurs. The broader message was pointed: insurability is no longer a background assumption in underwriting an investment. It is a live variable that belongs in the analysis from the planning phase onwards.
5. Demographics are concentrating value and creating new niches
Ageing populations and internal migration were highlighted as powerful forces reshaping European cities. Speakers pointed to Japan as an advanced proxy for what is coming in Europe: smaller cities hollowing out as young people concentrate in major urban centres, where they are marrying later and having fewer children. For investors, this reinforces the case for prime urban locations while raising urgent questions about undersupplied segments such as senior housing, co-living and smaller residential formats. Student housing remains an attractive institutional niche in principle, but its long-term fundamentals are being questioned in light of changing patterns in higher education. The conclusion? Demographic specificity, not aggregate market positioning, will determine where value is created in the next cycle.
