1. Saudi Arabia: Government Leaders, Investors Fast-Track Hospitality Growth
Saudi Arabia is set to eclipse many of the world’s biggest hotel and tourism destinations in the next decade or so, amid its ambitious Vision2030 program of giga-projects and other infrastructure that include a wealth of hotels, according to panelists at a global conference in Riyadh.
Speaking at the Future Hospitality Summit at the Al Faisaliah Hotel, Khalid Saud Abu Haimed, CEO of investment and development firm Al-Khozama, said the highest priority of any leisure or corporate traveler is food. “History and culture equal food,” he said, as other experts emphasized the importance of locally focused staffing and customer service.
2. UK: Newly Coronated King Inherits Immense Property Portfolio
After much of the United Kingdom celebrated the coronation of King Charles III, his attitude toward the £15.6 billion Crown Estate portfolio he inherits as the reigning monarch will be crucial.
Tracking just how and when the monarchy assembled the most sparkling jewels in the portfolio, which also includes a glittering array of famous residences and monuments, sheds a modern light on the country’s history and expectations about what its property should deliver. The Crown Estate essentially dates from 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, claimed the English throne and invaded from what is now Northern France.
3. Germany: Big-City Office Values Drop as Rent Growth Lags
Office properties in Germany’s largest cities lost 5.7% of their value during the first three months of 2023 as rent growth failed to compensate for the decline in a volatile economy, according to brokerage JLL.
Brokers said big-city values have dropped 16.7% overall in the past year, the biggest fall since JLL launched regional evaluations in 2004, with values in some cities now at levels not seen since 2018 and 2019. Munich’s office values held up better than most others, dropping 14.9% in the past year, followed by Düsseldorf’s banking district and Hamburg’s inner city, both declining 16.2%, with Berlin down 16.7% and Frankfurt declining 18.6%.
4. France: Deloitte Nears Completion of University Campus Project
Global consulting firm Deloitte is set to move within the next few weeks into a newly built training complex, called Deloitte University EMEA, being built by developer Nexity in a commercial neighborhood near Paris that was originally developed by Disney.
It is designed to train workers in Deloitte’s Europe, Middle East and Asian offices and has been in planning for the past decade. Deloitte France senior partner Bertrand Boisselier said the campus is an “entrepreneurial project” aiming to “invest in human capital, not real estate,” and is similar in size to the company’s existing training facility in Texas.
5. Canada: Developers Warn British Columbia Needs Record Amount of New Housing
Canadian developers are racing to tackle a severe national housing shortage as they say the federal government’s policy to encourage immigration has contributed to record population growth.
In British Columbia, where population gains are among the highest in Canada, the construction labor force in Vancouver and other cities lacks the capacity to meet building requirements of the coming decade. The West Coast province must ramp up annual housing completions 25% to 43,000 a year for the next five years to keep up with a population surge driven largely by the arrival of newcomers from other countries, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association.
6. US: Many Office Buildings Could Be Ripe for Multifamily Conversion
A third of older office building stock in some of the largest cities across the United States and Canada are considered ripe for conversion into apartments, potentially providing one way to revive urban vibrancy in cities where workers haven’t fully returned to the office.
Global real estate firm Avison Young identified 6,206 buildings across 10 U.S. cities that could be converted for multifamily use. The buildings were built before 1990 and have floor sizes below 15,000 square feet, making them better suited for conversion to apartments than others with large floors that are more difficult to carve up for living space.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.