1. China: Hyatt to expand portfolio with franchise agreement
Hyatt Hotels Corp. is partnering with Shanghai-based Homeinns Hotel Group, signing a franchise agreement to develop 50 Hyatt-branded properties across China’s primary and secondary cities.
No timeline or financial terms were specified, but plans call for 50 Hyatt Studios hotels to be developed over “the next several years,” according to a statement from Chicago-based Hyatt. The hotelier said the franchise deal “will expand [our] portfolio in the upper-midscale segment by adding hotels in Hyatt’s new extended-stay brand in one of the world’s most dynamic hospitality markets.”
2. UK: Real estate investment surges near Oxford University
It has been a busy few weeks for real estate deals in the university city of Oxford, England, including an £890 million investment by the Larry Ellison Institute aimed at extending Oxford Science Park and the launch of the £1.2 billion Oxford North science and technology development.
CoStar News chaired a panel with leading real estate investors and advisers to discuss the emerging challenges and opportunities in what has become a bustling corridor for commercial projects. Analysts noted Oxford is the 23rd largest office region in the United Kingdom, but it is in the top five for inventory growth over the last 10 years.
3. France: Principal targets French investors for new fund
Principal Asset Management recently launched a real estate fund focused on fast-growing property regions of the United States and Europe, and France is a key target market for new investors, a company executive told Business Immo in a video interview.
Guillaume Masset, Principal’s president of asset management in France, said the U.S. and Europe account for “over 50% of the world’s real estate by value,” and these markets offer “considerable diversification potential,” made more attractive by the fact that they are “largely uncorrelated” in terms of economic and real estate cycles. Principal is seeking to meet “this very unaddressed demand” for U.S. real estate among French investors, Masset said.
4. Germany: TPG buys Hamburg outlet center
American investment firm TPG acquired the Neumünster outlet near Hamburg, northern Germany’s largest retail center for designer brands, for €350 million, according to sources.
The purchase price was slightly above the last valuation of €344 million. The outlet center opened in 2012 and was expanded in 2015, now spanning nearly 29,000 square meters. Operators said the center houses 130 retail tenants and attracts around 2.6 million visitors per year.
5. Canada: Latest rate cut could boost property deals
The Bank of Canada lowered its target overnight loan rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.25% in a move commercial property professionals expect to increase deal activity in the region.
The rate cut, the second by the central bank in less than two months, reflects ongoing economic weakness and an inflation rate expected to remain close to the 2% target. “Lower interest rates will further stimulate our market, generating appetite from those investors who have been cautiously holding off on the sidelines while fueling already-active investors with even more optimism,” Mark Fieder, president of Avison Young Canada, said in a statement to CoStar News.
6. US: How would New York real estate look with Mayor Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani is the clear front-runner to become the next mayor of New York City, creating what a number of real estate investors and business leaders view as an existential crisis.
The Democratic socialist’s agenda, including controls on rent, increased corporate taxes and more government involvement in housing development, may feel like uncharted territory to those in the real estate industry who worry about an outflow of investments from the nation’s financial center. Yet, as prior mayoral tenures in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities have shown, translating campaign rhetoric into tangible policy change is often more elusive than anticipated.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.