1. India: Accor plans to expand hotel business through partnerships
Accor is going big in India, the country with the world’s largest population and, according to sources, the next major market for both domestic travel and inbound and outbound international travel.
The French hotel giant in April entered the second phase of its partnership with Indian conglomerate InterGlobe. After taking little action since first partnering in 2004, the two companies have now created a platform with plans to open 300 hotels in India under Accor brands by 2030.
2. UK: Lenders target property deals but face reduced demand
Lenders from 47 countries are actively seeking to deploy debt capital into United Kingdom real estate, the most on record, according to brokerage Savills. But the number of transactions to lend against remains frustratingly low.
Savills said the variety of lender activity in the United Kingdom property market suggests investor requirements across broad debt requirements and risk appetite can be fulfilled, and there has been a clear increase in United Kingdom-based new lender entrants. But Nick Harris, Savills’ head of United Kingdom and cross-border valuation, said pricing uncertainty continues in some property categories, which may be curbing transaction volumes.
3. France: Big office leasing surges in Paris
Paris is witnessing a surge in office lease transactions valued higher than €1,000 per square meter, according to regional brokers. Business Immo found 18 rental deals valued at that level in 2024, and the trend has continued into 2025.
Rents in the French capital’s most attractive office properties are soaring, with prime values now standing at €1,200 per square meter in the Paris central business district. In a recent study, Knight Frank counted 48 leases with a minimum surface area of 500 square meters with rents in excess of €900 per square meter for the year 2024, compared with just 28 in 2023 and fewer than 20 the previous year.
4. Germany: Office vacancy escalates in largest cities
Property owners this year are missing out on monthly income of almost €165 million due to current office vacancies in the five largest German office markets. According to brokerage Avison Young, this figure has tripled compared to the first quarter of 2020.
“Not every office building today will still be usable as an office in 10 years’ time,” Avison Young researcher Christian Ströder said in a recent report. Leasing trends in weaker office locations, combined with persistent vacancy rates, call into question the value of entire office portfolios, with demolitions possible where conversion to other types of use is not economically viable.
5. Canada: British Columbia rejects call to ease short-term rental clampdown
British Columbia’s largest real estate organization has called for more exemptions to short-term rental rules as the province begins to clamp down on listings by platforms such as Airbnb ahead of the busy summer travel season. But the provincial government currently has no plans to loosen restrictions, contending such rentals remain available throughout the region.
Rules aimed at curbing Airbnb and other short-term rentals have caused “a series of economic challenges,” including a shortage of rooms for tourists, patients needing medical care and construction and entertainment industry workers, the B.C. Real Estate Association said in a statement. The group said the province should allow local governments to designate specific properties or zones for short-term rentals. It seeks exemptions for certain rental properties including those near hospitals that accommodate traveling patients, and others housing cast and crew for film and television productions.
6. US: Google walks away from affordable housing project
In 2019, Google pledged $1 billion to help ease a housing shortage in the San Francisco Bay Area, a problem the tech giant acknowledged it had helped create. The area still lacks affordable housing, and the company’s exit from a large planned mixed-use proposal has raised doubts about whether thousands of promised units will ever get built.
The company confirmed that it is looking to sell a 40-acre site near its Mountain View, California, headquarters that had been slated to become a dense, transit-oriented development with 1,900 homes, a light rail station and 10 acres of parks. The plan was part of a 2022 deal with the city in which Google had agreed to donate a 2.4-acre parcel valued at $53 million for the development of around 380 units of affordable housing.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.