Hoteliers investing in Saudi Arabia remain confident despite government pullbacks in planned hospitality and tourism investments triggered by the U.S.-Iran war.

Analysts said war-related pressures on energy prices, supply chains and airline service are causing Saudi leaders to pump the brakes and even halt some projects tied to the country’s lofty Vision 2030 strategy for major development tied to tourism, hospitality and entertainment. But Carlos Khneisser, Hilton’s chief development officer for the Middle East and Africa, said the long-term future of the Saudi hotel industry is sound. “Most of our hotel agreements are 20 to 25 years in length, the area is resilient, and Hilton is 105 years of age,” Khneisser said. 

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New lending for United Kingdom commercial real estate rose 29% in 2025 to reach the highest level in a decade, according to a closely watched survey by Bayes Business School. Researchers said about £52.7 billion in new loans were issued, with activity driven by non-bank lenders and United Kingdom banks.

Non-bank lending increased 51% while bank financing rose 29% on an annual basis. What Bayes described as a “sluggish market” for new construction projects saw lenders competing on price to protect market share. Around 60% of lending involved refinancing.

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Paris-based investment firm Proudreed closed the sale of a French industrial portfolio to subsidiaries of Blackstone in one of the country’s largest property deals of recent years.

The deal is valued at about €2.3 billion and involves more than 500 industrial sites and projects across France, totaling more than 2.2 million square meters. New York-based Blackstone plans to accelerate development at the acquired sites over the next five years to reach 115,000 to 120,000 square meters of new properties annually. 

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Germany’s real estate prices increased at an annual rate of 2.2% in the first quarter, led by residential properties, according to banking trade group VDP. Prices reinforced an upward trend of the past year, though it remained to be seen how the war in Iran might affect pricing going forward, the group said.

Transaction data showed slightly stronger overall price growth for residential real estate at 2.3%, as office prices rose 1.9% and retail prices increased 1.5% from the year-earlier quarter. Sale prices for multifamily properties rose 2.2%, a weaker increase than in previous quarters, even as rents rose 3.0%. Single-family home prices increased 2.5%, VDP reported. 

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Slumping sales of electric vehicles have thrown uncertainty into Honda’s stalled plans for a $15 billion EV production plant in Alliston, Ontario, just north of Toronto, which was previously set for a 2028 opening.

Construction ceased last May amid flagging consumer demand for new EVs, and U.S. sales decreased 28% year-over-year in the first quarter after federal tax credits for new and used EV purchases expired in September. Honda has recalibrated its North American strategy to focus more on building hybrid vehicles rather than EVs, and the Alliston project’s future remains unclear. 

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The data center gold rush is colliding with a hard reality: Building or investing now requires far more capital than many developers can raise.

As demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing accelerates, construction costs for modern data centers have surged, industry analysts said. Facilities these days require massive upfront spending on land, power support systems and specialized construction, with large campuses often running into the billions of dollars. Industry estimates peg total capital needs at as much as $1 trillion over the next five years. 

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This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.