INREV, the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles, has published a white paper on the Standard Data Delivery Sheet (SDDS), an initiative to improve communication between investors and fund managers.

Non-listed Asian property funds will receive a greater increase in allocations from investors than non-listed European property funds, according to a comparison of the two markets carried out by INREV, the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles, and its sister organisation, ANREV, the Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles.

Klépierre, with its partners SNCF and Spie Batignolles, has opened St Lazare Paris, a new retail space at the Saint-Lazare railway station.

Land Securities has agreed to sell the 1.3-hectare Arundel Great Court site in London to Waterway PCP Properties Ltd for a headline price of £234 million (€288 million).

The Morgan Stanley P2 Value Fund is selling its 56.95 percent stake in the Trianon Office Tower in Frankfurt to Madison International Realty, a New York City–based investment company, and its German subsidiary, Madison Real Estate.

Rockspring Property Investment Managers has been busy developing new sustainable office buildings around the United Kingdom with multiple joint venture partners.

Prologis, a San Francisco–based industrial REIT, recently closed on the sale of two large logistics portfolios.

Queensgate Investments LLP has launched a new fund to invest in long income assets, hotels and special situation trades in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

Munich-based Real IS has launched Bayernfonds Australien 8, a single-property investment fund.

Meyer Bergman and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), a Canadian pension fund, have opened Forum Nová Karolina, a shopping centre in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Hamburg-based Union Investment Real Estate GmbH has sold the Luisencenter shopping centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to a fund managed by LaSalle Investment Management for €104 million.

Two decades ago, interest rates were up and real estate loan borrowers were failing to pay banks their dues

The West End of London Property Unit Trust (WELPUT), managed by Schroders and advised by Grafton Advisors, has sold the freehold interest in Stratton House to a private European investor for £166 million (€204 million).

Debt. Deficit. Austerity. Unemployment. Inflation. For what seems longer than just the past few months, the old continent has been struggling with these demons. Investors are still eager to find new opportunities despite these threats. The real estate sector can be an attractive option, because it’s seen to be far less risky than stocks and shares and offers better returns than the obligations of bonds. Investors are hence still interested in real estate prospects in the “golden triangle”: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Specifically, investors are on the lookout for prime office assets in London, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin. But other investors have become more adventurous and are seeking returns from different types of assets and markets.

The current crisis in the euro zone is principally the result of a systemic failure in the region’s monetary construction. Long-held fears that currency union without political union is unworkable have largely proved correct. However, we maintain the view that the euro zone will not break apart, and that all current members will continue using the currency.

The financing landscape for European commercial real estate is undergoing a fundamental change. The first step of the change has already occurred, with a number of high-volume lenders that were previously active in the property market withdrawing, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Real Estate Lending Survey.

As deal facilitators, brokers and consultants are at the heart of the real estate investment business. This business is local and global. Local, because on-the-ground market knowledge forms a key component of a deal’s structure; global, because there is an army of expert investors out there seeking real estate investments that meet their requirements, whether diversification, risk-adjusted returns, stable income or — ideally — a combination of the three. Editor Richard Fleming spoke recently with Borja Sierra, CEO, continental Europe, at Savills, based in London, about real estate markets across Europe; the pressures and uncertainties caused by fiscal austerity, rising unemployment and the continuing rumblings of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis; the risks inherent in the apparent investor concentration on core and prime in the principal markets; and Europe’s place in the real estate investment world.