In 2025, real estate has moved back to the center of many family office strategies. During periods of macroeconomic instability, property is perceived as a safe haven: a tangible asset, less volatile, seemingly more predictable.
This perception, however, is dangerous. Stability must also be assessed in relation to context.
Jurisdiction, regulation, operational supply chain, sustainability, credit structure: it takes only one fragile element for the entire investment to lose value. The asset is visible; the risk is not.
Allocation at Its Highest Level Since 2019
According to the PwC Global Family Office Deals Study 2025, real estate accounted for 39% of direct investments in the first half of 2025, the highest level recorded since 2019.
The data confirms a structural return to property assets during periods of macroeconomic volatility, when the search for stability outweighs appetite for market risk.
Why Stability Is Only Apparent
Real estate is often perceived as a solid, stable, “concrete” asset. In reality, it is one of the investments most dependent on external context.
A building may be well located, efficient, and liquid; the country or regulatory framework in which it operates may not be.
It is this gap between perception and reality that makes real estate a “safe haven” only in appearance.
The Variables That Determine Investment Quality
The strength of real estate does not depend on the property itself, but on the ecosystem surrounding it. Below are the areas that determine the quality, or fragility, of the investment.
1. Country Risk and Jurisdiction
Real estate performance is more sensitive to the institutional framework than it may seem. Regulatory stability, tax policy, leasing regimes, administrative efficiency, and judicial predictability directly affect value, liquidity, and exit timing. A solid asset in an unstable jurisdiction is, in practice, a fragile asset.
2. ESG: From Green Label to Greenwashing
ESG standards are no longer symbolic certifications: they affect valuations, operating costs, access to credit, and reputation. Many properties carry “green” labels that do not reflect actual performance, energy inefficiency, non-compliant works, incomplete data. The risk is not only operational but reputational, particularly in markets regulated by European legislation.
3. Operational Supply Chain: Procurement, Management, Maintenance
A property is only as strong as its operating chain. Opaque procurement, unstable suppliers, uncontrolled subcontracting, or inadequate maintenance compromise both returns and security. In most cases, weaknesses do not emerge during acquisition, but in post-deal management.
4. Credit Exposure and Interest Rate Risk
Debt structure is often the real driver of returns. Sensitivity to rate cycles, tight covenants, refinancing risks, and local credit conditions can drastically alter performance, even when the property itself is solid. A strong asset financed with a fragile debt structure remains a fragile deal.
How Due Diligence Is Changing in Contemporary Real Estate
Real estate due diligence can no longer be limited to contractual verification or economic valuation of the asset.
The current environment, regulatory, operational, ESG-related, and credit-driven, requires an approach that integrates risk levels traditionally treated as separate.
Today, analyzing an asset means:
- assessing the quality of the jurisdiction in which it operates,
- verifying the solidity of the operational chain managing it,
- distinguishing real sustainability from declared sustainability,
- evaluating the credit structure financing the investment.
Risk is not necessarily in the building, but in the environment in which it must operate. For this reason, due diligence has evolved from a technical exercise into a systemic assessment.
Real Estate Is Not a Safe Haven: It Is a System
The stability of real estate is not an intrinsic attribute of the asset. It is the result of a system of rules, actors, and operating conditions that must function together.
For this reason, in a market that is once again favoring property investments, the greatest risk is confusing asset tangibility with contextual solidity.
Family offices that protect real returns are those that assess jurisdiction before the building; the operating chain before the business plan; actual sustainability before certification.
Real estate appears solid, its system may not be. And that is where investment quality is truly measured.
