International Beat
International Beat
May.June.19
Australia’s Big
Deal
Malaysia’s YTL
Group acquired the Westin Perth for upward of $200 million from the BGC Group —
the largest single-asset transaction ever in the Western Australian capital.
The 28-story hotel, which opened in April 2018, has 368 guest suites,
convention facilities, a restaurant, fitness studio, and spa. The sale,
brokered by JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, also includes Hibernian Place,
a development featuring an outdoor plaza and a mix of hospitality with
development potential for a commercial office tower.
Source: The Hotel Conversation
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Norway’s
Sovereign Wealth Fund Cuts RE Allocation
Norges Bank Investment Management, Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund,
recently reduced its real estate allocation. The fund announced in February
that it cut its target allocation to 3 to 5 percent, down from 7 percent, which
includes shares in both listed and unlisted real estate investments. In the
last decade, the fund has spent $25 billion on posh properties in Paris,
London, and New York, but it will now focus more on REITs. “We would like to emphasize that real
estate will continue to be an important part of the bank’s investment strategy for the [Government Pension Fund
Global], and the fund will be a major player in the real estate markets in the
years to come,” says
Norges Bank Deputy Governor Egil Matsen. “The
strategy is to be simple, with emphasis on cost-efficiency.”
Source: Norges Bank, Bloomberg
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European Retail Markets: What Looks Good?
Union Investment’s
Global Retail Attractiveness Index measures the appeal of retail markets across
Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. The index reflects consumer
confidence, business retail confidence, changes in the consumer price index,
and retail sales performance. The top five European markets in this year’s index are:
- Portugal
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Germany
- Spain
Source: Union Investment
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Top Global Cities for Tech
Savills released its third edition of Savills Tech Cities,
which ranks 30 cities around the world on a variety of metrics including volume
of inbound venture capital, access to tech talent, real estate costs, and
mobility services and infrastructure. This year’s
top 10:
- New York
- San Francisco
- London
- Amsterdam
- Boston
- Singapore
- Los Angeles
- Austin, Tex.
- Stockholm
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Source: Savills
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2018 an Active Year
for Spain’s
Market
Last year marked the busiest in a decade for Spain’s property market. The annual
aggregate investment volume in commercial assets was 11.63 billion euros, an increase of 8 percent from 2017. Figures by asset class included:
BNP Paribas Real Estate notes that the decrease in office
volume was due to the scarcity of office product and fewer deals in 2018 than
2017.
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Global Markets to Watch
Global capital flows continue to
grow, with 97 percent of respondents to Deloitte’s
“2019 Commercial Real Estate Outlook” planning to increase capital
commitments in the next 18 months. Investors in the United States and Germany
plan to increase commitments by 13 percent in that window, with parties in
Canada (12 percent), China (12 percent), and Hong Kong (12 percent) also feeling
optimistic. Mixed-use properties will see the biggest jump in investment at 14
percent, followed by nontraditional at 13 percent.
Source: Deloitte, “2019
Commercial Real Estate Outlook”