The soaring popularity of the Baltic Sea coast propelled Poland’s hotel occupancy to near pre-pandemic levels in 2024, and rising tourism is being reflected in regional hospitality property investment sales.

“On the transactions front, 2024 showed a gradual resurgence, with over €120 million transacted,” a significant improvement from €45 million in 2023, said Nicolas Horky, partner and head of hotel transactions in Central and Eastern Europe for brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. Branded hotels are investors’ top choice, he said, but serviced apartments and branded residences also are getting their attention.

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves placed two areas of major importance for real estate at the heart of the government’s strategy for driving economic growth: national security and housing development.

Reeves said in a spring speech to lawmakers that the government’s principal task is to “secure Britain’s future in a world that is changing before our eyes” amid geopolitical uncertainties and rising borrowing costs. The government is increasing capital spending by a further £13 billion over parliament plans by 2029, to support “growth-enhancing investments including infrastructure, housing and" innovation in national security, Reeves said.

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French government efforts to increase the supply of affordable and sustainable housing are unlikely to revolutionize the market in coming months, though the chairman and CEO of investment firm Groupe Gambetta expects development conditions to turn favorable starting in 2027.

“We understood very early on that this crisis would be a long one,” Norbert Fanchon told Business Immo in a video interview. He said he “anticipates a new cycle from 2027 onwards,” as his company takes steps to reposition certain investment programs and reduce costs. “The market has shrunk by 30 to 40%, so we’ve cut those costs by 30 to 40%, which is pretty violent,” Fanchon said.

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Technology giant Siemens rented 33,000 square meters of office space in Munich, making it the largest private-sector deal among top German cities for a long time.

For comparison, last year consulting firm Deloitte was the largest office tenant with a contract for 20,000 square meters in Berlin. Siemens starting in 2027 will be the sole occupier of developer Pandion’s project known as Officehome Beat at Anzinger Strasse 23 in Munich, according to JLL, which brokered the lease.

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Canadian vegetarian fast-food restaurant Odd Burger is halting its expansion plans south of the border, citing its home country’s escalating trade tariff tensions with the United States.

The London, Ontario-based meatless and dairy-free chain said earlier this month that it planned a $2 million private placement to support expansion in the U.S., after scouting the American market for some time, but it is now pausing plans. “Given the global tariff uncertainty, we are putting the brakes on our U.S. expansion until pricing metrics can be formulated with certainty,” Odd Burger co-founder and CEO James McInnes said in a statement.

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Real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities filed plans for a master plan development with thousands of apartments near Microsoft’s massive corporate headquarters near Seattle in Redmond, Washington.

AvalonBay, based in Arlington, Virginia, would build 2,000 to 2,500 multifamily units east of the 520 freeway next to the new Redmond Tech Station light-rail station that opened last year, according to the plans filed with the city. The project called Avalon Redmond Tech Station comes as multifamily developers have built or planned thousands of units in Microsoft’s home city, where the tech giant expects to add jobs as it consolidates operations from across the Puget Sound region at its refreshed headquarters campus, due to be finished in phases starting this year.

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