Market Data
International Beat
Spain’s Big Deal
CBRE
Global Investors purchased the El Boulevard Shopping Center in Vitoria, Spain,
for €153 million ($193 million), proof of Spain’s returning retail investment market. It is the
region’s
leading retail mall, attracting upward of 9 million visitors annually,
according to Property Magazine International. Spain’s 1H14 retail investment volume was €1 billion,
more than double the total 2013 volume, according to JLL, which estimates that
the country’s total
2014 retail volume will top €2 billion for the first time since 2006.
Markets
to Watch
Expect
more retailers to stake a claim in China, where a rising minimum wage,
estimated to increase 80 percent in the next five years, will transform the
country from the world’s “factory” to its largest consumer marketplace, according to remarks at the World
Retail Congress in Paris this fall. The creation of this new middle class will
increase China’s retail
sales by 15 percent a year, said William Fung, chairman of Li & Fung Ltd.
Investors
are snapping up Germany’s
hotels, increasing sales activity by 100 percent YOY, according to an HVS
report. In the first seven months of the year, German hotel volume surpassed €1.5
billion, compared to last year’s €800 million. Hotels in secondary markets and those in the budget
class are attracting the most attention, reports HVS, which estimates the
yearly volume to exceed €2 billion in 2014. While Munich, Frankfurt, and
Dusseldorf are the most active markets, Dresden and Leipzig in the eastern part
of the country are also attracting investors.