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.