On 21 June, the DTZ Real Estate Forum was held at the new Alliance Building in the Cloche D'Or. Four conferences, representing four very different points of views from four experts within the real estate sector, combined to offer attendees a multi faceted look at the newest real estate developments in Luxembourg as well as some of the challenges.

The DTZ Real Estate Forum on 21 June gathered together various national and international experts from the real estate market including occupiers, developers, landlords and investors. DTZ are international property advisers with an active role in many commercial real estate ventures in Luxembourg. Stefano Moreno of Moreno Architecture, Sven Rein of Brown Brothers Harriman Luxembourg, Vincent Delwiche of Agora and Michel Baugniet of Fortis Real Estate Luxembourg offered four presentations from four different perspectives that, when combined, gave a fairly comprehensive view of the real estate market in Luxembourg. After the four conferences, visitors were invited to take the "Real Estate City Tour" to view the latest developments in and around Luxembourg City.

Moreno gave a presentation on "Architectural Evaluation Systems" comparing Dexia buildings in France, Belgium in Luxembourg in terms of criteria such as surface size as project benchmarks.

Rein gave a presentation entitled, "The Luxembourg Real Estate Investment Funds Market". This presentation offered a very good analysis of the situation in Luxembourg versus the situation in Europe as a whole. His conclusions were quite bullish, indicating that investor demand for real estate investment will continue to grow. In light of this, real estate investment funds are an increasingly important choice for access to European real estate. Luxembourg currently is the leading European investment fund market and is increasingly chosen for cross-border real estate investment funds. In his view, the benefits Luxembourg has to offer are many with its wide range of legal structures, attractive tax structuring alternatives, experienced custodians, auditors and tax advisors, and proactive regulatory authority.

Baugniet gave a presentation on some of the "Crucial points to consider in the development of real estate". This presentation drove home the point that larger scale real estate is not something to go into uneducated as that there are many challenges that a professional promoter can help to over ride. Such issues as the sharing of risk, complementary competencies between partners, and how to avoid destructive competition were raised. Some Fortis Real Estate projects - past, present and future - were used as demonstrative examples.

Delwiche gave a very detailed presentation of the "Redevelopment of the South, and the creation of Agora"s unique sites". In this presentation he showed the various stages, completed and to be completed in the future, of the site at Belvaux in Esch. This is an ambitious plan, which includes both institutional projects as well as living quarters. Rockhal was finished in 2005, an incubator for companies is due for completion in 2008, a technical high school by 2010, the national archives building in 2012 and a first State administrative building by 2011. In 2007 the first constructions for habitation, 250 apartments and houses, will begin. The overall concept is that this area will offer everything to the people living and working there - schools, fitness, a beautiful landscape, working offices, and infrastructure (public transportation etc.).

In contradiction to recent years, DTZ wanted to break with the tradition of the office market presentation by introducing the DTZ Real Estate Forum. In the upcoming years, DTZ wants to improve upon this concept to create an essential real estate event in Luxembourg.