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Europe is witnessing an unprecedented boom in data centre development, fuelled by digitalisation and the rapid rise of AI. Yet operators and investors must also navigate growing challenges around power availability, sustainability and climate resilience. Drawing on their experience from data centre projects across Europe, Drees & Sommer experts Peter Junker, associate partner, and Mathias Franke, head of data centre consulting, discuss the trends shaping the next generation of digital infrastructure.

Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) has attracted growing attention in recent years, but, in many respects, it remains a relatively underexplored part of the industrial and logistics market.

How will spiking diesel fuel prices change where logistics operators want to locate? LaSalle’s latest Paths of Distribution (PoDs) analysis gives us the analytical engine to answer this question – which has been made especially relevant in 2026 by the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Mario Costa, Mileway’s Head of Development, explains how customer demand, local insight and disciplined investment decisions are shaping a pipeline of urban logistics projects across Europe.

As higher financing costs, tighter underwriting and regulatory complexity reshape the market, disciplined lenders are finding compelling opportunities in well-structured residential schemes across the UK and Western Europe

The European real estate and private credit landscape has entered a more demanding phase. Cost pressures remain elevated and the margin for execution error has narrowed. In this environment, I believe active management is no longer a differentiator but a necessity. Delivering consistent performance now depends on accuracy at entry price, discipline in capital allocation and genuine operational control on the ground.

Across Europe, buildings stand vacant while demand for urban space keeps growing. Reimagining existing properties has emerged as a strategic response – aligning sustainability, market demand and cross-border investment logic to turn underused assets into future-ready real estate.

For a multitude of reasons, Central and Eastern Europe has become a beacon for third party logistics companies, yet it has only around half as much Grade A space as Western Europe. That presents a huge opportunity for real estate companies, writes Bert Hesselink.

Fresh impetus for the French logistics real estate market is currently coming from the areas of fast fashion and social commerce, writes Cedric Mallmann

Across Europe, cities face a shortage of housing while office vacancies are rising. Roelien de Haas, head of project solutions international at Drees & Sommer Netherlands, explains how converting offices and, in some cases, entire industrial sites into residential space can deliver new homes sustainably

Up until 2022, logistics developers found it relatively easy to deliver successful projects, with seemingly no limit to demand. Since then, however, they have had to evolve in order to prosper

After years of uncertainty, Europe’s real estate debt market is showing signs of renewed momentum. Falling interest rates and the stabilisation of rate expectations have brought buyers and vendors closer together on pricing, creating a platform for transactions at more realistic valuations. The consequence: rising demand for acquisition financing.

David White, head of LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies, Europe, at LaSalle Investment Management speaks to CRE Media Europe at Expo Real 2025.