1. Morocco: Hotel’s 150-year-old wine cellar keeps history alive
The famed wine cellar at Monaco’s Hôtel de Paris Monte Carlo, billed as the world’s largest such facility among hospitality properties, now preserves a robust history along with its vintage spirits after turning 150 years old.
Hotel operators said the cellar’s 1.25 miles of passages contain more than 350,000 bottles from five prominent French wine regions. It remains among popular tourism draws to the property operated by a Monte Carlo firm owned by Paris-based luxury goods maker and retailer Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, which also owns global hotel firm Belmond.
2. UK: Heathrow expansion tops Chancellor’s development plans
A new runway for London’s busy Heathrow Airport was among high-priority development and infrastructure commitments unveiled by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, as the United Kingdom looks to speed up government planning systems.
Speaking to a group of business leaders at Siemens in Oxfordshire, Reeves said the government would go “further and faster” to unlock economic growth. The Chancellor also announced a partnership between global logistics giant Prologis and England’s East Midlands Airport to build an advanced manufacturing campus that could generate £1 billion in investment and create 2,000 jobs.
3. France: Residential property investment declines
Residential property investment in France reached €3 billion in 2024, down 10% from 2023 as the fourth quarter posted an even steeper drop from a year earlier at 47%, reaching €621 million, according to data firm ImmoStat.
Regional brokers pointed to several differences among various residential categories, with conventional multifamily properties outperforming fully furnished residences that are leased for short- or medium-term stays. The overall decline in investment and assets under management “is essentially due to a lack of offers meeting buyers’ expectations in terms of yield,” according to Stéphane Imowicz, chairman of Paris-based real estate consulting firm Ikory.
4. Germany: Fund outflows signal real estate selloffs ahead
December marked the 17th consecutive month of net outflows for open-ended mutual real estate funds that invest in German properties, according to Barkow Consulting, a trend pointing to increased property selloffs potentially ahead for those funds and other investors.
The consulting firm reported €611 million in net fund outflows for December, including redemptions, bringing the 2024 total to €5.9 billion. Analysts note that large companies such as Deka and Union Investment are hardly ever buyers in the German market, and that will probably hold true under current market conditions.
5. Canada: Real estate executives brace for potential trade war
Canada’s real estate industry joined other business leaders in condemning United States tariffs as the country braced for a potential economic fallout. U.S. President Donald Trump issued a 30-day delay for a 25% tariff on Canadian goods that was originally slated to take effect Feb. 4.
Before the postponement, Bank of Montreal economists said there is a high degree of uncertainty given the lack of historical precedent, noting Canada has never been in a broad-based trade war with its largest trading partner. While the tariff risk was priced in to some extent for publicly traded real estate companies, equity risks for those firms “could expand further if the trade war drags on and leads to a recession in Canada,” analyst Michael Markidis said in a note to investors.
6. US: Dell joins wave of firms calling workers back to offices
Computer hardware giant Dell Technologies joined a slew of companies now demanding employees to return to offices for full five-day workweeks, as businesses shift away from remote and hybrid arrangements enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell told employees it would be eliminating remote work privileges, with those living within an hour’s drive from a Dell office required to commute five days per week starting March 3. Dell adds to a growing list of corporate heavyweights making similar moves, including Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Starbucks, AT&T and Walmart.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.