The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Real Estate 2022

Dear Reader,
More than a year after the COVID-19 crisis began, the real estate sector is still struggling
to get to grips with the implications of the pandemic.
At the time of publication of this edition of the Guide, the picture is patchy - with some
jurisdictions remaining in 'lockdown' whilst others are at different stages on the long
road to recovery and some sense of 'normality'.
Just as local real estate law and practice had to change to help stem the spread of the
virus and absorb the shock to the real estate sector, so too it needs to adjust again as the
immediate implications of COVID-19 recede and things return to normal. They might
even take their place in a range of measures that governments and others introduce to
help stimulate recovery.
For this reason, this edition of the Guide retains the question that asks what changes to
the laws that govern real estate have been introduced in reaction to the effects of the
virus. That question remains as pertinent today as it did 18 months ago.
Whilst COVID-19 will continue to dominate the industry's thinking and planning for
the foreseeable future there are, of course, other trends that will have a profound effect
on real estate investment, development and owner occupation, not the least of which is
climate change and sustainability. As the industry begins to recover from COVID-19-
related impacts, these trends will once again re-assert themselves as being issues the real
estate sector needs to grapple with, urgently.