1. Turkey: Hotels face challenges despite tourism boom
Amid government claims of booming tourism revenue and occupancies, hoteliers say the Turkish hospitality industry is unstable as operators face rising costs, high inflation and staffing challenges.
Erdoğan Turan, secretary general of the Profesyonel Otel Yöneticileri Derneği, or Professional Hoteliers Association, and general manager of Innvista Hotels Belek in Antalya, said the Turkish Riviera region’s hotel climate is currently “volatile.” Reservations are often made at the last minute, creating “great uncertainty” along with price fluctuations for hotels, he said.
2. UK: Commercial real estate lending surges
New lending for United Kingdom commercial real estate in the first half of 2025 increased 33% from the year-earlier period, according to the latest semiannual report from Bayes Business School.
Total new lending reached £22.3 billion, while secondary loan market syndication surpassed £10 billion, almost matching the full-year total for 2024. The investment market is still lagging, with 74% of new lending recorded to refinancing. However, there is hope that the rest of the year will improve further, Bayes reported.
3. France: AI tech firm Mistral plans new Paris headquarters
Mistral AI, one of France’s largest providers of artificial intelligence technologies, plans to establish a new headquarters in the 18th arrondissement of Paris in early 2026, according to sources.
The company plans to take up around 10,000 square meters of space in the Marcadet-Belvédère building, owned by investment fund Icawood. After recently raising €1.7 billion to take its valuation to €11.7 billion, Mistral AI told news outlet Maddyness that its new Paris headquarters is intended to be a “real flagship,” as it continues to establish roots in the French capital.
4. Germany: Residential developer boosts acquisitions
Residential developer Instone Real Estate is expanding its project acquisitions as it seeks to capitalize on an improved financing climate and expected rising demand for housing in Germany’s largest cities.
The company said it has acquired nine projects this year in the metropolitan regions of Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, and Leipzig, with a gross development volume of over €1.1 billion. The projects included more than 2,100 planned residential units, 800 of which could be created for low- and middle-income households.
5. Canada: Housing costs out of reach for many young buyers
Canadians aspiring to buy a first house or condominium could be forced to wait until they reach middle-age, especially in Vancouver, where the average buyer must save for over two decades to afford a down payment, according to a new report.
Vancouver leads Canada in housing unaffordability, with average home prices topping $1.65 million and down payments exceeding $240,000, according to the study from Bloom Holding, a developer of mixed-use communities based in the United Arab Emirates. Assuming buyers start putting away money at age 23, the study estimates the age of a first-time buyer of a house or condominium to be 46 in Vancouver, 40 in Toronto and 39 in Montreal.
6. US: Inside the circular nature of OpenAI's blockbuster data center deals
OpenAI's ambitions for its ChatGPT artificial intelligence platform are rising out of the Texas brushland in Abilene, where a complex the size of New York’s Central Park embodies the firm’s plans to spend at least $1 trillion on data centers to meet exploding demand. But something else is also sprouting: questions on how OpenAI will pay for all this commercial real estate development.
OpenAI has inked blockbuster deals in recent weeks to build AI networks that increase processing power, or “compute.” The largest, a $100 billion investment from chipmaking giant Nvidia, sparked questions on whether the chipmaker is spending unprecedented sums merely to prop up the purchase of its own products.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.