1. France: Paris Pursues Real Estate Legacy as Olympics Host
As the city hosts the 2024 Olympic Games before a global audience, Paris business and government leaders also aspire to create a lasting legacy in the form of a real estate revival.
“Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024 is a tremendous opportunity to renovate, develop and transform the territories of the Paris region,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. She said the global event could help “to speed up projects... to adapt to the climatic and environmental challenges of the 21st century” and “to promote French know-how and the work of many world leaders in the construction and development sector, and to propose a new, more sober, ambitious and innovative way of building.”
2. UK: Helsinki Tops Ranking of Heat-Resilient Cities
Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm took the top three spots among 20 cities best prepared to deal with extreme urban heat in a global ranking compiled by brokerage Savills.
Researchers placed London at No. 13 after reviewing 30 global cities for the Savills Heat Resilience Index. The report showed half of the top 10 ranked cities are in Europe, but even those cities may face risks as heat waves are especially dangerous in places where buildings are not designed for extreme temperatures.
3. Namibia: Upscale Hoteliers Look To Expand in Africa
A focus on upscale “lifestyle” brands could provide a route for global hotel companies to grow their footprints in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, according to analysts at a hotel investment conference in Windhoek, Namibia.
Executives including Wytze van den Berg, vice president of international operations for WorldHotels and BWH Hotels, said they are confident that lifestyle hotels — generally those somewhere between upscale properties and others with the highest luxury amenities — can scale across Africa. He expects rising hotel visits in the region among other factors to extend a current “repositioning of assets” for another 10 years.
4. Germany: Logistics Property Deals Among Biggest of First Half
An improving investment climate helped Germany post an increase in large commercial property sales in this year’s first half, with logistics properties in particular contributing to the upturn.
Data from Thomas Daily and regional brokerages showed there were 30 commercial transactions above €60 million nationwide in the first half, 10 more than a year earlier. That included 10 logistics properties that sold for more than €100 million, while the office category was less dynamic with a few exceptions.
5. Canada: Slowing Home Sales Challenge Self-Storage Companies
The slowing of Canada’s housing market is beginning to affect one of the country’s largest publicly traded self-storage companies, which warned of emerging challenges after wrapping up a quarter in which it posted higher revenues.
Executives expressed caution at StorageVault, the Toronto-based owner and operator of 249 storage locations across Canada. “While we have growth in leads and move-ins, the current environment faces headwinds from slow housing sales and renovations, and as people are watching their spending,” StorageVault Chief Financial Officer Iqbal Kahn said in a statement.
6. US: CBRE Shifts Headquarters to Former Coworking Space
CBRE Group has relocated its Dallas headquarters and executives into three floors designed for the world’s largest brokerage’s Workplace 360 format, as plans remain on hold for a proposed tower nearby that would house its corporate home.
CBRE unveiled plans in March 2023 to shift its corporate office to a Dallas space that once housed a now-defunct flexible workspace concept called Hana, after its proposed new 27-story headquarters and mixed-use tower were put on hold because of economic conditions. The latest relocation came as CBRE raised its earnings forecast for the year while it cuts costs and prepares for dealmaking to pick up in coming months.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.