What is property? The answer is obvious and the question may come across as one of those profound-sounding questions that you get in undergraduate philosophy exams, but in the current post–global financial crisis environment I think it is a valuable question to ask, and one to which the answers could open up avenues of property investment that are currently being missed.
Wereldhave has agreed to buy a 49,200-square-metre shopping centre in the United Kingdom from Grosvenor Fund Management for £85 million (€102 million).
Neinver SA, a Spanish real estate developer, has formed two joint ventures to own retail properties in Poland, one with Meyer Bergman and the other with Heitman.
Union Investment Real Estate GmbH has sold two office buildings in Paris to UFG Real Estate Managers for €120 million.
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) in the United Kingdom has hired four new investment managers to help develop its global real estate strategy, alongside its existing manager Aviva Investors, which will continue to manage an existing UK portfolio.
Tishman Speyer has purchased the Cap de Seine building in Paris in an off-market transaction; terms were not disclosed.
You know that something’s not quite right when you walk into a room of real estate investors and fund managers and they’re talking vehemently about risk. That’s what happened at the last meeting of The Letter – Europe’s editorial board, held in mid-September 2010 at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées in Stresa, Italy. Not only that, but they were still talking about risk a day later.
Terrace Hill Group Plc has agreed to sell an office property in London to Cordea Savills European Commercial Fund for £53.5 million (e64.3 million).
The SWIP Property Trust has acquired a London office property from the Premier Property Group (PPG) for £32.4 million (€39 million).
Editor Richard Fleming spoke recently with Peter Hobbs, appointed last year as senior director and head of business development at IPD in London, about the company’s development and future direction.
The Wilhelminahof office and courts complex in Rotterdam traded hands for €220 million in December 2010, marking the largest single-asset transaction in the Netherlands in 2010.
Rockspring Property Investment Managers LLP, on behalf of its TransEuropean Property LP IV, has purchased the Ferio Shopping Centre in Konin, Poland, for €47 million.
Pontegadea Group has acquired a portfolio of five bank branch units let to Banco Sabadell for €55 million.
The Chinese wealth creation and demographic story is compelling for retail property investors. Favourable government policies, demographics and wealth creation are all shaping the future of Chinese consumers.
MirLand, a Russia-based property developer, has completed the construction of The Triumph Mall in Saratov, Russia.
UK-REIT Metric Property Investments Plc has acquired a UK retail park from Land Securities Plc for £14.4 million (€17.3 million).
LaSalle Investment Management has acquired the Arena Shopping Park in the United Kingdom for £53 million (e64 million), with an initial yield of 5.34 percent
Land Securities has purchased the Overgate Shopping Centre in Dundee, Scotland, for £141 million (€170 million).
Swedish real estate company Kungsleden AB has agreed to sell 17 properties in Germany for a total of SKr 1.3 billion (e145 million) at a property yield of more than 7 percent to Hemsö Fastighets AB, which is a 50-50 joint venture of Kungsleden and the Swedish Third Pension Insurance Fund AP3.
IVG Institutional Funds has sold a five-storey office building in Madrid for €28 million to local private investors.
IC Immobilien Gruppe has been awarded the property management of a four-asset portfolio of German properties on behalf of a Munich-based institutional investor.
Henderson Global Investors has acquired two Thornfield entities from administrators for an undisclosed amount.
In October 2010, Henderson Global Investors published a research report on what it called the “investment timing paradox”. The investment manager argued that European real estate investors should consider moving up the risk curve to benefit from a risk premium that had arisen as a result of everyone flocking to the safety of core property. “We should see investors starting to deploy capital strategically in order to benefit from the new cycle [that is] emerging,” the report stated. “This is not, however, what we witness in Europe’s property investment markets, where investors and lenders still operate in risk-aversion mode, almost exclusively focusing on core assets.”
Helical Bar Plc has recently completed a number of transactions in the United Kingdom.
F&C REIT Asset Management GmbH & Co KG, a subsidiary of F&C Asset Management LLP, has launched a Spezialfonds on behalf of a German pension fund, with a targeted capital expenditure of €120 million.
European Property Investors Special Opportunities LP (EPISO), a fund co-advised by AEW Europe and Tristan Capital Partners, has acquired the Jantar Shopping Centre in Slupsk, Poland, for €92 million.
Cushman & Wakefield Investors (CWI) has sold two properties in France on behalf of a Swedish pension fund.
Atrium European Real Estate has acquired the Promenada Shopping Centre in Warsaw for €169.5 million; Atrium now owns 19 income-producing assets in Poland
Aerium has sold 40 Portman Square in the West End of London to clients of ING Real Estate Investment Management (REIM) for £181 million (€218 million).
Adina Apartment Hotels has completed construction on a new serviced apartment project in Hamburg.