Laurent Cooreman, pictured at a Paperjam + Delano Business Club event, is taking over as the CEO of Belair House Library photo: Jenna Theis, Benjamin Champenois

Laurent Cooreman, pictured at a Paperjam + Delano Business Club event, is taking over as the CEO of Belair House Library photo: Jenna Theis, Benjamin Champenois

Moving from commercial real estate company CBRE to the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), Laurent Cooreman has been appointed CEO of the bank’s Belair House family office subsidiary.

Cooreman joined the BIL group on Monday after founding and being managing director of CBRE’s Luxembourg office for nine years. He also served as a member of the board.

In addition to his post at CBRE, he founded and owns Square Meter, a company dedicated to the development of real estate partnerships in Luxembourg, for example in asset management, lease and sales coordination, valuations, project development and advisory.

“It is a great moment to bring together equity, debt, real estate knowledge, experience and network through a dedicated platform aiming at client’s wealth preservation and growth,” the newly appointed Belair House CEO said in a statement. “In today’s market, strategic and practical deployment of assets in the real estate market is key. We are all very excited to assist and work with current and future client.”

Belair House in 2014 launched its family office and investment management services after receiving regulatory approval. It opened after an evaluation of private banking needs, BIL said at the time.

Arnaud Decrulle, CEO of Belair House at its launch, left the organisation in 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“With Laurent Cooreman at the helm of Belair House we can offer dedicated and tailor-made services to our clients,” said Jeffrey Dentzer, chairman of the board of Belair House and head of Luxembourg market and CIB and BIL, in Monday’s statement. “With his arrival, we cover the full value chain of investing in real estate. This is a perfect addition for our core market in Luxembourg and the greater region.”

Challenging market

Activity in the real estate sector has slowed down in the past months as high interest rates and rising prices are further pinching the market. The of existing flats was down 10% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same time the year before, the latest data available.

For new builds, the number of transactions dropped 36.4%. The number of sales of houses declined 12.6% between the third quarters of 2021 and 2022, data from housing monitoring body the Observatoire de l’habitat showed.

A 2022 market report by CBRE, Cooreman’s former company, showed that the commercial real estate sector also performed lower. “The €1bn annual volume is a drop of more than one-third from the year before,” the document said about investments last year. “Though resilient, Luxembourg has not escaped the macro inflationary forces and disruptive environment.” Belgian investors claimed 32% of total commercial real estate investment in the country last year.

“The real estate market is both an opportunity and a challenge for many of our corporate and wealth management client and we are happy that we can increase our overall expertise in this field with Laurent Cooreman,” said Marcel Leyers, CEO of BIL. “This will strengthen our position as a solid Luxembourgish bank for entrepreneurs.”