“The cost of living, rising infla­tion, and high interest rates are shaping the consumer landscape,” said James McEvoy, CEO of GFORM, a commercial real estate and financial management platform, with a focus on grocery-anchored real estate in Germany, and which was launched by The Greenman Group last month.

“Across the retail sector, this is reflected amongst the subdued shopping mood of consumers; however, the past few years have proven the essential nature of the grocery sector and we believe it will remain an anchor of stability within the real estate busi­ness. We are currently experiencing steady investor interest in sustainable, grocery-an­chored assets that are future proofed in terms of store concepts, changing operational strat­egies and in particular, environmental require­ments.”

Sustainability is also playing a huge role, according to McEvoy: “In fact, I believe that we must actively engage with the occupiers of our properties and the local communities we operate in to really tackle sustainability issues and reach environmental targets,” he said. “Therefore, Greenman has been working on an ambitious plan to reach net zero across our portfolio by 2050 (the Net Zero Pathway) and we believe that the current regulations and other energy restrictions shouldn’t be viewed negatively but rather as a chance to innovate and improve our existing offerings.”

(Charles Kingston, Editor)

You can read the full article on GFORM‘s Linkedin channel