In times of rising interest rates, economic turmoil and even the threat of a recession, financing and investing institutional money in real estate is more topical than ever. This was also demonstrated by the great response to FondsForum's DebtConference 2022. More than 150 institutional investors, fund providers and real estate service providers gathered at the Kap Europa in Frankfurt am Main on September 1 and 2, 2022. Among the participants was a high proportion of foreign guests, including around 25 from the USA and the UK.

David Rückel once again led the event in a very confident manner. Together with the 30 or so experts and panelists on stage, he emphasized the importance of the topic of debt for the institutional real estate industry. Special attention was paid to the keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Andreas Dombret as a former member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Bundesbank for many years. He analyzed the economic and political framework in detail and explained the effects of rising interest rates, inflation and the Ukraine war, especially from an economic perspective. Dr. Gertrud Traud was also able to provide deep economic insights as Helaba's Chief Economist.

The national and regional debt markets were addressed by several speakers at once, with the U.S. market being of particular interest due to its lead development. The topic of ESG also has a significant impact on debt investments and was discussed very lively on the second day of the conference.

Debt continues to be not only an important topic in the real estate industry, but is gaining in importance. Real estate financing is nowhere near as easy to present as it was in the golden decade before the pandemic. Banks have become very cautious and project developments are sometimes no longer financed at all. Thus, the supply of outside capital via debt funds plays a very important role. But also from the investment side, demand continues unabated. Although interest rates for fixed-income securities have risen, debt funds remain attractive by comparison.

Nevertheless, the debt industry faces major challenges. With a changing market environment and rising interest rates, tougher times are ahead. Expecting defaults on the one hand, but also changing risk parameters will not be a walk in the park for the industry. On the other hand, the capital gap will widen even further, creating opportunities for the private debt industry and alternative lenders. Thus, debt will remain one of the central topics in the real estate industry in the future.