Nordic Real Estate Conference 2021 | Moody's Corporation | 30 November 2021 | Grand Hôtel, Stockholm, Sweden, Södra Blasieholmshamnen 8, 103 27 Stockholm, Sweden

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to remote working and e-commerce, and restructured the commercial real estate (CRE) market, creating winners and losers. Logistics and warehouse properties, and residential and public service real estate have been the big winners. Retail is a long-term loser and hotel properties a short-term loser. The office sector contains both winners and losers.

We expect environmentally friendly prime offices in vibrant, large cities to be more resilient to the working-from home- trend than those of secondary quality in secondary locations. Still, transactions are very strong (though vacancies are increasing in most areas), rents are mostly stable and yields continue to tighten.

Will the pandemic mark the beginning of the end of the current real estate cycle? Should real estate companies prepare for an inevitable cooling in sector conditions?

• The ultra-loose monetary response to the pandemic continues to support property valuations and investment markets. The pandemic’s impact on the Nordic real estate companies rated by Moody’s has been barely visible to date. Companies may emerge from the pandemic largely unscathed. How prepared are they for the post-pandemic era and how do we assess the outlook for the real estate sector’s credit quality? What are the greatest risks?

• With GDP in Nordic countries recovering quickly, what is the likelihood of interest rate rises and potentially higher than expected inflation? The CRE market is strong, but for how long? How advanced are Nordic real estate companies in terms of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures, as climate change and corporate governance increase in importance?

• Finally, how vulnerable is the Swedish bond market when it comes to liquidity and how important is it to financial stability? The Riksbank has begun to buy corporate bonds, but will this be enough to ensure sufficient liquidity in the secondary market if investor sentiment sours?

2021 Speakers

Matthias Hellstern
Managing Director, Corporate Finance, Moody's Investors Service

Olivier Chemla
Vice President - Senior Analyst, Sovereign/ Sub-sovereign, Moody's Investors Service

Maria Gillholm
Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance, Moody's Investors Service

Arvid Lindqvist
Partner, Head of Research, Catella Corporate Finance Sweden

Anneli Jansson
CEO, Humlegården Fastigheter

Eero Sihvonen
Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Citycon Oyj

Daniel Harlid
Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance, Moody's Investors Service

Åsa Bergström
Vice President and CFO, Fabege AB

Erik Thedéen
Director General, Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority

Henry Ohlsson
Deputy Governor, Riksbank

Louis Landeman
Head of Credit Research, Danske Bank