Real Estate takes more than bricks and mortar

Yet stock exchanges, clearing, settlement, custody, data and investor access are increasingly becoming part of the real estate market’s infrastructure itself.

This is essentially the message behind Euronext’s discussion of the importance of market infrastructure for real estate: the deeper, more liquid and more integrated Europe’s capital markets become, the more easily listed real estate companies can raise capital and convert it into tangible assets.

Liquidity

The relationship is more direct than it may initially appear. A real estate company with access to a broad pool of institutional investors can raise equity, issue bonds, refinance debt, or fund acquisitions and developments. The quality of market infrastructure therefore affects the cost of capital and, in turn, the price at which an asset can be acquired or developed.

Euronext is now one of Europe’s largest integrated market infrastructures. In June 2026, its markets hosted more than 1,800 listed issuers, with a combined market capitalisation of approximately €7 trillion, representing around 29% of European equity trading on organised markets.

For real estate, this is particularly significant. A recent joint study by EPRA and INREV estimates that the European investment universe of listed and unlisted real estate now exceeds €2 trillion. The two markets essentially invest in the same underlying product — European real estate — but offer different levels of liquidity, corporate governance and access to capital.

The Challenge

Europe’s major disadvantage remains fragmentation. Different markets, settlement systems, regulatory regimes and pools of liquidity make it more difficult to channel the continent’s vast savings into productive investment.

Euronext has argued that approximately €13 trillion in private savings across the EU could be channelled more efficiently towards businesses and investment if these barriers were reduced. For real estate, this is not an abstract debate about capital markets. It could potentially mean greater access to equity for housing, logistics, data centres, student accommodation, infrastructure and building energy-efficiency upgrades.

And Now, Athens

This is where the discussion takes on particular significance for Greece. Following Euronext’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Athens Stock Exchange in November 2025, the Greek market is becoming more deeply integrated into a pan-European market infrastructure.

For Greek REICs and property development companies, the real question is not simply whether they will operate under a larger stock-market “umbrella.” It is whether greater integration can broaden their access to international capital, increase liquidity and ultimately reduce their financing costs.

Because in the next chapter of European real estate, the competitiveness of an asset will depend not only on where it is located and how much it yields. It will also depend on how efficiently the capital markets can finance it.

Euronext states that, following its acquisition of the Athens Stock Exchange, its infrastructure now encompasses markets across eight European countries, alongside clearing and CSD services. At the same time, EPRA and INREV place the total European real estate investment universe above €2 trillion, highlighting precisely the role of market infrastructure in supporting the sector’s further development.