There was a brief moment earlier last year when commercial real estate investor interest started to wander further out on the risk curve looking at properties beyond Europe’s Big Three cities of London, Paris and Frankfurt. Then, in the heat of the summer, the euro crisis boiled up and investors scurried back to the cover of the prime markets.

Nothing has changed since then. The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the euro and individual European economies persists, while recovery in North America and Asia remains unsteady. If anything, the perception gap of what is a prime and secondary investment opportunity in real estate has calcified.

Early in 2012, optimism remains bounded and fettered.

“The gap [between prime and secondary markets] is widening,” asserts Alice Breheny, head of research (Europe), property, for