Market Data
International Beat
Singapore’s Big Deal
The Hong Kong-based Park Hotel
Group sold thePark Hotel Clarke Quay in
Singapore to Ascendas Hospitality Trust for $238 million, or around $700,000
per room, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. The sale tops the list of 1H13 hotel
transactions in the heated Asian hotel market that transacted $1.3 billion in
the first six months, almost doubling 1H12 volume.
Markets to Watch
Office investment in Central and Eastern Europe topped €1.7 billion ($2.2 billion)
in the first half of 2013, an increase of more than 100 percent over 1H12,
according to CBRE. Poland and Russia accounted for about 75 percent of the
deals, although the Czech Republic and Romania were also active markets.
“Africa is not
the new China, it’s the new Africa,” wrote Christian Ulbrich, Jones Lang
LaSalle CEO of Europe, Middle East, and Africa in a recent blog post. Investors
often think of Africa as one country, like China, instead of 54 separate
nations, he says. The lack of a common African language, government, and
infrastructure limits growth, but “10 years from now, 65 cities in Africa will
have more than 1 million inhabitants,” he adds. “Just from a commercial real
estate point of view, the need for office space, shopping malls, and logistics
centres feels quite overwhelming.” JLL has identified 20 African cities that
represent the most likely emerging markets: 11 of them are located in Egypt,
Nigeria, Morocco, and South Africa.
Europe
Rebounds
Overall European real estate
markets are delivering a record year, with market watchers targeting a year-end
total of €142 billion ($188 billion), according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Second-quarter volume hit €32 billion ($42 billion), the highest second quarter
since 2007. In the past 12 months, retail and industrial had been responsible
for most of the deal growth, but office investment has taken over, cornering
almost half of the European market.