Amsterdam officials have further tightened hotel development regulations in place since 2017 as government leaders look to spread tourism benefits more evenly throughout one of Europe’s most popular visitor destinations.

A mid-April edict from city hall said a new hotel in Amsterdam can only be built if another hotel closes when the number of sleeping places doesn’t increase with the new project, and if the new hotel is considered to be an improvement — for example, more sustainable than the property it replaces. Officials said 26 hotels already in development and approved before new rules were issued will be allowed to open as planned.

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Analysts said United Kingdom commercial property investment among buyers based in the United States rose substantially in this year’s first quarter, with London recording its highest share of that spending in nearly a decade.

Financial services firm BNP Paribas Real Estate reported United Kingdom investment from United States investors reached £3 billion in the first quarter, up 64% from the year-earlier period and rising 117% from the fourth quarter of 2023. The latest tally topped the past five-year quarterly average of £2.8 billion and the 10-year quarterly average of £2.6 billion, as investors sought to capitalize on favorable leasing fundamentals and currency exchange rates.

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British investment firm Supermarket Income REIT acquired a portfolio of 17 grocery stores in France from retailer Carrefour in a sale-leaseback deal valued at about €75.3 million.

The transaction was the first deal in the €284 billion French grocery property market for the real estate investment trust, based in London, according to its adviser. Stores in the acquired portfolio are geographically diversified with a weighting in northern France and locations averaging about 3,715 square meters of interior space.

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Vonovia has completed about a third of its €3 billion in property disposals planned for 2024 as the German investor and developer of apartments and other housing aims to boost revenue and profits in a challenging climate.

Based in Bochum, the company reported a first-quarter profit of €335.5 million, compared with a €2.1 billion loss in the year-earlier quarter. Officials said rental revenue and other investment conditions have recently been improving after the company took a significant write-down on its real estate portfolio in early 2023. 

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Japanese automaker Honda is leading a $15 billion investment in a planned electric vehicle battery plant in Canada’s Ontario province, with $2.5 billion in expected tax incentives from the government.

Honda officials said the company will join two other firms in developing a battery production facility adjacent to its current EV plant in Alliston that's expected to add 1,000 jobs to the automaker’s current 4,200 in the Toronto suburb. The project includes a battery processing plant to be operated in partnership with South Korean steel maker POSCO Future M. Co. and a separator plant in a joint venture with Japanese multinational chemical company Asahi Kasei.

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Walmart plans to close all 51 of its Walmart Health centers in five states as the world’s largest retailer exits what other firms have found to be a financially difficult line of primary care services.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said it is closing its health centers in its home state, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas, and shutting its telehealth unit. Its first healthcare centers debuted in 2019, typically located next to existing Walmart Supercenters, but “the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs create a lack of profitability that make the care business unsustainable for us at this time,” a company statement said. 

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