We’ve certainly seen some wonderful artists pass away over recent weeks, including Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey and iconic rock star David Bowie. And though it may seem like a stretch, the arcs of these two musicians’ careers present an opportunity to reflect on how they can apply to our own industry, certainly in terms of investment management and strategy. And it’s not as much of a stretch as you may think.
“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it” wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It. And it may be that the British are now getting to like a new kind of place to live in, one already much better known in many other parts of Europe and North America. The private rented sector (PRS), institutionally-owned and professionally-managed developments of rental homes (known as multifamily housing almost everywhere else, but what’s in a name), is now finally taking root in the United Kingdom.
The British Property Federation, the trade association for the United Kingdom’s property sector, recently released a report, commissioned from Toscafund Asset Management LLP and titled Britain’s Property CREdentials, that highlights the role played in the UK economy by commercial real estate, defined as any property whose main function is to generate income for its owner.
Retailers are now tidying up after the peak Christmas/New Year shopping season and clearance sales but retail property buyers are still out in force across Europe.
January saw the launch of a multibillion-euro fund and closes for four funds.
The Investment Intentions Survey 2016 from INREV, ANREV and PREA shows that investors expect to commit a minimum of €48 billion to real estate globally this year, a 13 percent increase on 2015.
Among commercial real estate investors, Germany is talked about as having seven top markets — the A cities — and a multitude of smaller B, C and D cities that cannot be termed secondary or regional but that often play off one or other of the top cities. Everyone is in agreement on the identity of these top cities — in alphabetical order: Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Where people are less certain is on the ranking of the top seven.
European hotel investment in 2015 burst through the €20 billion mark for the first time in the history of the asset class, demonstrating the increasing appreciation of hotel real estate as an institutionally-accepted and progressively mainstream investment class across the continent.
It may come as a shock to many to know that the majority of European sustainability ratings currently in place are fundamentally unable to measure the operational sustainability performance of a building.
Until April 2015, longer-duration government bond yields in the developed world had been in a secular decline. During 1981, yields on benchmark 10-year UK and US government bonds (known as gilts and Treasuries, respectively) reached highs of some 15 percent, French OATs some 17.5 percent, and German Bunds some 10 percent.
Do you like facts? Some people swear by them. In fact, some people find it impossible to move without first assembling a comprehensive array of unimpeachable “facts” pointing at certainty.