Mabel Capital, Michael Zerda, and the Iberian platforms reshaping European real estate capital flows

European real estate investment climbed to €241 billion in 2025, a 13% increase from the previous year, according to CBRE. Behind that headline number lies a structural shift in how capital reaches assets. A rising cohort of Iberian-linked principals and platforms, including Mabel Capital, Michael Zerda's Deva Capital, Palm Capital, and public-sector actors such as Pedro Baganha in Porto, is redefining the intermediation layer between private wealth and built environment.

Rather than relying on the traditional fund-manager gatekeeping model, these operators deploy capital through direct, relationship-driven structures. Their emergence reflects a broader European trend: the rise of connector-principals who combine local market knowledge with cross-border deal-sourcing capabilities.

European investment volumes signal sustained recovery

The €241 billion figure for 2025 marks a decisive turn after the correction cycle that followed the interest-rate shock of 2022-2023. According to projections compiled by GRI Institute and CBRE, European real estate investment volumes are expected to grow cumulatively by over 30% through 2027. The Living sector led European real estate investment in 2025, according to CBRE and GRI Institute, underscoring the weight of demographic demand and regulatory incentives in allocating institutional capital.

This recovery is unevenly distributed across geographies and operator types. Large pan-European managers continue to dominate headline transactions, but a parallel capital circuit is gaining institutional visibility. Smaller, principal-led platforms with strong Iberian roots are capturing deal flow in segments where speed, local licensing expertise, and direct relationships with landowners or municipalities matter more than balance-sheet scale.

Who is Michael Zerda and what is his role in European real estate?

Michael Zerda is currently the Global Head of Real Estate at Santander Alternative Investments and CEO of Deva Capital. His career trajectory spans senior positions at LaSalle Investment Management and Blackstone, two of the most influential institutional platforms in global real estate. That background places him at the intersection of large-scale institutional allocation and the more agile, conviction-driven deployment model that characterises the current Iberian wave.

Zerda's dual role is significant. At Santander Alternative Investments, he operates within one of Europe's largest banking groups, with access to distribution networks, balance-sheet capacity, and a client base of high-net-worth and institutional investors across Latin America and Europe. At Deva Capital, the structure is leaner, oriented toward direct investment and co-investment strategies that bypass the layered fee structures of traditional blind-pool funds.

The connector-principal model that Zerda represents is gaining traction precisely because it aligns the interests of the deploying entity with those of capital partners. In a market environment where transparency and alignment are increasingly demanded by allocators, principals who co-invest meaningful equity alongside their partners carry credibility that pure intermediaries often lack.

What is Mabel Capital and how does it operate in the Iberian market?

Mabel Capital is a private investment firm founded in Madrid by Abel Matutes Prats and Manuel Campos. The platform entered the Portuguese market with the acquisition of four buildings in Lisbon, as reported by Iberian Property in March 2018. That early positioning in Lisbon anticipated what became one of the strongest capital appreciation cycles in Southern European real estate over the following years.

Mabel Capital's investment approach reflects the broader characteristics of the Iberian connector-principal model: direct acquisitions, a preference for urban assets with repositioning potential, and a willingness to engage with local regulatory frameworks rather than outsource that complexity to third-party advisors. The firm operates across sectors, though its Iberian portfolio has concentrated on urban mixed-use and hospitality-adjacent assets in core city locations.

The platform's growing visibility among institutional audiences signals a maturation phase. As Iberian real estate transitions from a yield-compression story to an operational value-creation story, platforms with embedded local teams and direct municipal relationships hold a structural advantage over remote capital allocators.

Palm Capital and the logistics value-add thesis

Palm Capital, founded by Reda Khatim, manages commercial real estate across the UK and Europe with a focus on distressed and value-add investments, according to the firm's own disclosures. The platform acquired a logistics portfolio in Bressana Bottarone, Pavia, Italy, as reported by CRE Media Europe in October 2025.

That transaction exemplifies the cross-border deal-sourcing capability that distinguishes the current generation of mid-market principals. Logistics remains one of the highest-conviction sectors for European institutional capital, driven by e-commerce penetration, nearshoring trends, and supply-chain reconfiguration. Palm Capital's ability to source and close a value-add logistics deal in Northern Italy from a UK-headquartered platform demonstrates the kind of operational reach that was previously associated only with much larger managers.

The distressed and value-add focus is particularly relevant in the current cycle. As refinancing pressures force asset dispositions across European markets, operators with available equity and quick decision-making processes are capturing opportunities that slower, committee-driven institutional vehicles cannot access in time.

Pedro Baganha and the public-private dimension in Porto

Pedro Baganha, the City Councilor for Urbanism, Public Space, and Housing in Porto, represents the public-sector dimension of this capital realignment. The municipality of Porto aims to increase its public housing supply to address affordable housing shortages, with targets extending toward 2030, according to Porto City Council.

Baganha's role is relevant to the investment thesis because public-private partnerships are becoming an essential channel for deploying capital into the Living sector across Southern Europe. Municipal actors who understand both the regulatory environment and the needs of private capital partners function as enablers of deal flow that would otherwise remain trapped in bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Portugal's Simplex Urbanístico, a legislative initiative aimed at simplifying and accelerating urban licensing processes for real estate development and construction, is a direct response to the regulatory friction that has historically slowed capital deployment in Portuguese cities. For platforms like Mabel Capital that entered Lisbon early, this regulatory streamlining could unlock a second wave of development activity in Portuguese urban markets.

How does regulation shape the competitive advantage of locally embedded principals?

The EU Directive 2024/1275, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, requires zero-emission new buildings by 2030. This creates regulatory complexity that inherently favors locally embedded principals who can navigate national transposition timelines, municipal building codes, and energy certification requirements.

For cross-border capital allocators, compliance with the revised EPBD adds a layer of operational risk that is difficult to manage from a distance. Principals with teams on the ground in Madrid, Lisbon, or Milan can integrate regulatory compliance into their underwriting from day one, rather than discovering compliance costs after acquisition.

This regulatory environment reinforces the structural advantage of the connector-principal model. Platforms that combine capital access with local operational capability are better positioned to deliver risk-adjusted returns in a regulatory landscape that grows more complex with each directive cycle.

The connector-principal thesis in context

The emergence of Iberian-linked platforms as meaningful participants in European real estate capital flows is consistent with themes discussed regularly within GRI Institute's membership network. At GRI events, the conversation among senior principals has shifted perceptibly from macro allocation themes toward operator-level due diligence: who deploys, how they source, and what alignment mechanisms they offer.

Three dynamics support the continued growth of this segment. First, the cumulative investment growth projected through 2027 creates a volume tailwind that benefits all active platforms. Second, the structural shift toward the Living and logistics sectors favors operators with sector-specific expertise rather than generalist fund managers. Third, regulatory complexity across European jurisdictions rewards local knowledge and embedded relationships with municipal and national authorities.

The Iberian connector-principals profiled here, including Mabel Capital, Deva Capital, and Palm Capital, represent different expressions of the same structural thesis. Each combines direct capital deployment with cross-border sourcing, local regulatory navigation, and alignment-driven partnership models. Their rising institutional visibility, measured by search interest and industry engagement, reflects a broader market recognition that the intermediation layer in European real estate is being fundamentally restructured.

As GRI Institute's data and member intelligence consistently indicate, the operators who will capture disproportionate deal flow in the next cycle are those who combine principal-level conviction with platform-level reach. The Iberian corridor, spanning from Madrid through Lisbon to Porto and extending into Italian logistics hubs and UK commercial markets, is emerging as one of the most dynamic theatres for this model.