Australia: Hotel Investors Eye Remote Destinations
Denver-based private equity firm KSL Capital Partners is among numerous hotel investors now keen on acquiring properties in remote destinations across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
KSL’s partnership with Australian luxury hospitality operator Baillie Lodges seeks to boost business by upgrading accommodations in out-of-the-way locations not traditionally on many travelers’ itineraries. KSL said the purchase of Huka Lodge, founded in the 1920s as a fishermen’s camp, marked “a strategic entrance into the New Zealand market.”
UK: WeWork Looking To Sell London Offices
The investment arm of flexible workspace provider WeWork is restarting efforts to sell off its London office properties as it looks to raise capital by divesting real estate it purchased during a rapid expansion of the past decade.
The company’s Ark investment affiliate was highly active in the United Kingdom as well as other regions in Europe at the end of the last decade but began marketing its London office portfolio for sale more than a year ago. New York-based WeWork is seeking approximately £68 million for the property at 99 Queen Victoria St., the same price it paid for the building in 2019.
Germany: Planned Data Center Would Be Among Europe’s Largest
Data center developer Data4 acquired a 20-hectare former U.S. Army property in Hanau, near Frankfurt, to build what it said would be among Europe’s largest data centers.
Paris-based Data4 bought the site from developer P3 and plans to spend more than €1 billion on the facility, which will also house its German headquarters. Demolition of a 500,000-square-meter former barracks building is underway, with the first new module expected to be commissioned by 2025 and the full development completed in 2032.
Canada: Surging Demand Creates ‘Urgent’ Need for Apartments
Escalating demand has driven Canadian apartment vacancy to its lowest level in 20 years, creating affordability challenges and heightening priorities for increasing supply, according to a government advisory agency.
“The current conditions reinforce the urgent need to accelerate housing supply and address supply gaps to improve housing affordability for Canadians,” said chief economist Bob Dugan in a report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The country’s three largest rental markets, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, all recorded vacancy declines during 2022 as the national vacancy rate fell to 1.9%, the lowest since 2001.
France: Office Demand Drops Sharply
Demand for office space is steadily falling throughout France, though some regions are faring better than others in the face of rising headwinds.
Leasing by service-oriented companies in the Paris region ended 2022 at 5% below 10-year averages, spurred largely by a steep fourth-quarter drop in demand, said Stéphanie Galiègue of IEIF, a prominent real estate research institute. Some areas of inner-city Paris are seeing stronger appetites for space as they cater to companies serving industries including luxury goods, banking and consulting.
US: Irish Consulate Plans Relocation to Manhattan’s MetLife Building
Ireland House, which includes that nation’s Consulate General in New York City, is relocating to the MetLife Building in Manhattan from another Park Avenue office property.
The government of Ireland signed a long-term, 43,108-square-foot lease to occupy the entire 17th floor in Tishman Speyer’s 200 Park Ave., also known as the MetLife Building, starting in 2024, according to brokerage Savills. Ireland House, among the country’s eight consulates in the U.S., includes the Consulate General along with Ireland’s trade, tourism and investment agencies.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s international news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.