Zell sees open door in emerging real estate markets

By William Kemble-Diaz

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Real estate mogul Sam Zell sees few opportunities in U.S and European property markets but says undersupplied residential markets in Asia and Latin America remain moneyspinners for adventurous housebuilders.

"Generally speaking, we do not see ... any significant opportunities in the developed world," Zell told a property conference on Tuesday.

Zell -- who sold Equity Office Properties Trust to Blackstone (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in February 2007 for $23 billion plus debt, in one of the biggest private equity takeovers -- also said the U.S. dollar was undervalued relative to European currencies.

"As an equity investor ... I wouldn't be comfortable holding (real estate) assets in euros at current rates," he said.

Zell, who heads firms including leading U.S. apartment landlord Equity Residential (EQR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and U.S. newspaper group Tribune (TXA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said some property-related structured products such as collateralised loan obligations had been excessively marked down in value in the United States due to "firesale accounting".

But with banks unwilling to offload such assets at lower levels, in the belief they were worth more, the most lucrative opportunities in real estate investment were in emerging markets such as Egypt, Chile, Mexico, China and Brazil, where demand for middle-to-low income homes "continued unabated".

Zell said another company in his stable, private equity firm Equity International, had delivered 60,000 Mexican housing units in 2007 but had not dented enormous demand from the fast-growing middle class in the country.