Real estate is still one of the most profitable and promising investments one can use to protect their future’s finance. Investing in the real estate product doesn’t have to be in the physical form or a building. Playing with the real estate stock also could be a method to make a profit with lower risk and a convenient way to keep the investment work well for a long time. For this reason, Vassilis Milionis, an investment and real estate expert, recommends several choices of real estate stock that investors can try.

CoreSite Realty (NYSE:COR)

CoreSite Realty focuses on building and operating as well as maintaining data centers. This company’s service has high demands in today’s industry, where everything is based on the digital system. The building is one of the strong reasons to choose this stock for investment. People or institutions will always need them. For the past 12 months, this company stock has increased by 9%. With a 4% dividend, this stock offers a profitable investment.

Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE:HASI)

This company also offers promising investments in the real estate stock market. Vasilis Milionis also added that an investor that wants to invest with the ESG concept or Environmental, Social, and Governance concept should consider HASI as the stock where they put their money. One of the advantages of Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure is it has a partnership with the government. It means that it has a strong backup, which can help them to survive when the problem arises. As for its record, HASI stock value has increased by 79% since its IPO with a 2.6% dividend per year.

St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE)

St. Joe Company focuses on building residential areas that become a hotcake during the colder weather in the North. This company operation area is in Florida, where the warm weather can be easily found and enjoyed by people who live in the colder area. This unique business model seems promising, especially for people who need to release their stress because of the pandemic. Furthermore, this company also builds much accommodation for its main properties, such as restaurants and other facilities. Last year, this company stock was up 74% with a sub-1% dividend. Even though it is classified as the B rating stock, but Milionis recommends it as one of the promising real estate stocks that can grow in the future.

People often see the pandemic has brought many problems to the real estate industry. The demand for property decreases as the customer can’t directly visit the product to find out more about its quality, like what a property buyer did in the past. However, the reality is the opposite. Close to the end of 2020, the real estate market, especially the housing market, shows a great improvement. One of the top experts in the real estate market and investment, Vassilis Milionis, even recommended people to buy or sell the property because the market situation hasn’t been as good as today.

One of the reasons that drive the real estate market to move in a better direction is the product and interest rate. Currently, the supply of property products is deficient. This condition is a good thing for the seller because their product will have a high demand in the market. On the other hand, the buyer also can see it as the chance to get the product that is difficult to get previously. Thanks to this condition, the wheel of the real estate market has started to spin once more. And, the expert also predicts that it will move even faster next year, which could be the year where the real estate industry rises to its history’s top condition.

Vasilis Milionis also noticed some changes to the interest rate of the property product. This year and maybe the next year will become one of the lowest interest rates that clients can find on the real estate market. The low-interest rates that many real estate agencies put on their product are another reason why the real estate market looks so promising today. During the pandemic, where the number of customers drops drastically, this company has some problems selling their product. So, to fill the quota of this year, many real estate companies try to offer benefits for the clients who want to buy their product by lowering the interest rate.  

Real estate products, especially the suburban areas, have also become popular these days. There is a trend where many people that used to live in the big city move to the suburban area to find a more peaceful situation. Thanks to this trend, Milionis said that the property market in this area had grown significantly. With a better spread of need like this, it is no doubt that the real estate market is in top condition today.

Bank has a significant part in the effort to restore global finance after being struck by the pandemic this year. Banks will become the fund source that helps the business restore and revive after the crisis besides the incentive that many countries’ governments have been given or planned to give. For that reason, Vassilis Milionis said that a bank must focus on the right part where they give the funding to support the restoration process of global finance. This investment and financial expert also mentioned three essential things that are necessary to put in the priority.

The first part is the digitalization. The bank should focus on the business that runs in this industry, as this sector will become the core of the business and finance world in the future. Furthermore, the pandemic also forces people to use this platform more often due to their mobility limitations. Therefore, this part also becomes a great sector that will attract more investors to invest their money. Thus, it will help the countries and companies to get back on their feet. All of this process will also affect the financial condition globally.

The second part that Vasilis Milionis also mentioned is the supply chain. Today, the business world needs to have strong and durable supply chains. Banks can help create a program that connects those who need a product to the supplier that provides them. It doesn’t only help to simplify the process to start and run the business. But, it also accelerates the restoration process, which the expert predicts that within two or three years, the result will be visible.

The last part is the workforce quality. The crisis leads to a difficult situation that pushes the business world to adapt and create a new system to utilize the new normal that is happening and will happen in the future. Therefore, high-quality human resources will have a role in making this situation work well. The bank can enter the process to provide a top-quality workforce by having programs that help the company financially to create better training and hiring programs. Milionis said these are all important to make the world run once again in a better direction, not only for people but also for the business world in the future. These are also necessary to restore the condition after the crisis.

The Corona pandemic has negatively affected many aspects of European countries, especially the Southeast Europe area. Countries are suffering from the sudden change caused by this situation, which also affects their economy. However, good news has come for the countries in this area. The EU has planned to provide a substantial incentive for the affected countries to recover from the crisis. According to Vassilis Milionis, an expert in real estate, finance, and investment, this is a good sign for the investor to enter and put their money along with the plan. The question is which asset can be considered the best investment for the Southeast Europe area.

First of all, the EU will focus the funding for the recovery process of digital and physical infrastructure restoration. Therefore, this is also the best sector for investment. The needs and demands of the digital product and service have increased significantly, as people are still limited to traveling and even leaving their house during a pandemic. It creates a profitable opportunity for businesses in this sector to grow bigger. With the EU funding for Southeast European countries, this field could experience a massive expansion in the next two or three years. When the investment enters as early as next year, the investor will receive the benefits from it in the next couple more years.

However, Vasilis Milionis also added that real estate or property products are still a hot asset to pay more attention to its development. During the pandemic year, 2020, there was some fluctuation of its value on the market. Many countries in Southeast Europe also use their funds to recover the more significant sector affected by the pandemic. But, the demand for the property is still high, similar to before. Therefore, this sector is also something that all investors who want to invest in this area must consider.

The last sector that is also recommended by Milionis is the aviation stock. With many promising results from several companies for the COVID vaccine, the aviation stock increased significantly, showing the trust and prospect that this field will return to its normal condition. Overall, those three sectors will hold an essential role in developing the Southeast European countries, which also become a promising sector where the investment can flourish in the future and produce a good number of profits. 

The pandemic changes many things in today’s world. The real estate market is no exception. As said by Vassilis Milionis, this year will be challenging as well as promising years for real estate. One of the unique cases in the real estate market transformation is the micro-condo market because of the pandemic.

Micro-condo, a small and compact living place, which is usually built in the downtown area, once was marketed as the best solution for people who need a living place. People love this concept, and many were sold when it was introduced two years ago. The customers are mostly those who are single or students. The compactness of micro-condo allows them to get the freedom that they want. Even though the rent rate was quite high, there were always demands for this unique building concept.

However, the pandemic has changed people’s lifestyles. Many people lose their job, which means losing their income to pay for the freedom this small building offers. Currently, the situation is getting worse for this building category. Realtors and expert Vasilis Milionis agree that it is quite difficult to make a quota for the small condo category. A Realtor has a problem selling a building with a size of smaller than 500 square feet. Now, it crowded the real estate market.

So, here comes a question. Which property are people favorites today? According to the TRREB and Urbanization data, currently, people prefer to live in large spaces. Rather than following their ego to get the freedom, the market carefully chooses the property that could turn into the property with better value in the future. Therefore, the easy-to-use and compact size condo lose its attractiveness. It isn’t worth investing in. 

The real estate market condition shows that the building with 2,000 square foot size is more appealing for the buyers. Thus, it is not surprising when this large building type becomes the leader of today’s real estate market. Its supply keeps decreasing, thanks to the higher demand for this type of building.

Milionis sees this as the normal reaction due to a pandemic. People tend to save more money to prepare for the worse effect in the future if the pandemic doesn’t subside. He also said that people start to know how to invest in real estate. This is a good thing, as it will stimulate the market to wake up after receiving a quite hard blow from COVID 19.

The pandemic has affected many aspects of modern people’s life. Thus, it also showed the current global finance condition. According to Vassilis Milionis, this condition could be even worse if many countries don’t have enough preparation before the pandemic. However, the problem is still there and growing. For this reason, a financial organization, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a plan that could be a solution for the global finance problem.

The program focuses on supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help the company and individual rise from the slump thanks to the global pandemic effect. This program plan was presented at the Paris Peace Forum, where it receives many good responses. Many participants of that event call it one of the best solutions for global financial problems today. Vasilis Milionis also said that this problem could bring another problem in the future.

The OECD and UNDP programs focus on creating sustainable and resilient investments. This type of investment will help many countries, especially the developing countries and states, recover from the pandemic’s problem. This year itself, developing countries already lose at least USD 700 billion of external finance sources. If this condition keeps existing, there is a risk of another global crisis in the future. Worst of all, the movement to decrease poverty and improve those countries’ quality of life will be slowed down and even stop.

This program tries to create a sustainable system and environment for those countries. Therefore, even after this program is finished in the future, the countries that used the program will be able to survive and sustain their economy. In a better result, those countries can even solve many economic problems that it had before the pandemic.

Currently, the two organizations are still in the middle of designing the right and worked framework for this system. When it is finished, this system will change the current financial system, making it even better and functional than before. However, the need for big funds to run this program also becomes another obstacle to make it into reality. It said that it needs at least 1.1% of total assets in the system that is currently held by the banks that reach around 379 trillion dollars. So, Milionis recommends people to patiently wait as that is the only thing that people can do now.