Other European countries offer better opportunities at present for real estate investment than the Netherlands, according to Standard Life Investments (SLI).

‘We are not negative on the market in the Netherlands, but in a pan-European context we are neutral. The message is that there are better opportunities for Dutch institutions to investment in real estate outside the Netherlands at the moment,’ said Mark Meiklejon, investment director of Standard Life Investments (SLI).

Speaking at a press gathering in Amsterdam on Friday, Meiklejon said that the Netherlands looks good from an income point of view but that there are better opportunities elsewhere at present.

SLI is particularly positive about the central business district of Paris for core office investment and the heavy populated triangular region intersecting Belgium, France and Germany for logistics.

A business development team from SLI has been in the Netherlands the last week talking to institutional investors about a range of investment strategies including real estate.

Patrick Woods, SLI investment director for the Benelux, said that there is a notable interest among institutional players in increasing their real estate exposure. He said that SLI hoped to secure new mandates and sign contracts with new clients before the end of the first half.

SLI has a total of EUR 177 bn of assets under management globally, of which real estate accounts for EUR 11 bn. The majority of the real estate investment is in the UK (EUR 8.5 bn), with the remainder invested in Continental Europe.