EUROPE – Real estate measurement firm IPD has released an 11-country pan-European index for consultation.

It is based on IPD indices for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and the UK.

“This is an exciting and ambitious extension of IPD’s index publication services,” said IPD director Ian Cullen. “We want to make this product something that will be really useful for international investors and would welcome feedback on questions of content and method over the coming months.”

IPD is consulting on the methods and presentation of the index. It plans to publish the index formally in June 2005.

It said the results reported demonstrate the significance of currency realignment in defining cross-border investor returns.

“In local currencies, a portfolio balanced to match the weights of professional real estate investment in each of the 11 markets would have seen relatively stable return delivery in the six to seven percent, fading slightly in 2003.”