1. Europe: Tourism demand buoys hotel investment prospects
International hotel operators are navigating disruptions caused by geopolitical tensions, but consumers’ strong desire to travel could still elevate business prospects in coming months, according to industry leaders gathered for a global hospitality investment conference in Berlin.
Analysts pointed to continued increases in international tourism despite recent trade wars, travel advisories and potential economic hardships, with hoteliers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa poised to capitalize if consumers decide to avoid travel to the United States. Investors are interested in acquiring hotels across Europe, though would-be buyers say they are still approaching acquisitions carefully.
2. UK: Fighter jet program signs Reading’s biggest office lease in 10 years
Property owner Mapletree signed a major multinational fighter jet program to a 150,000-square-foot office lease in Reading, England, the largest such transaction for the Thames Valley west of London in at least a decade.
Sources said the two-building lease at the Green Park office complex was signed by the Global Combat Air Programme, a joint initiative between the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy focused on developing next-generation combat aircraft. Defense Secretary John Healey confirmed in January that the program’s global headquarters would be in Reading, though specific location details did not emerge at that time.
3. France: Agency seeks to sell up to 6,000 housing units
An investment arm of the French government is looking to sell off up to 6,000 residential units as part of larger efforts to increase development and investment in affordable housing.
CDC Habitat, a subsidiary of a public financial institution known as Caisse des dépôts et consignations or “Deposits and Consignments Fund,” is preparing to market a portfolio of 5,000 to 6,000 housing units located throughout France. CDC Habitat is anticipating the return of institutional investors to the housing market as it plans to reinvest proceeds from such sales into new housing production, an agency official told Business Immo.
4. Germany: Munich tops ranking for office and retail rents
Munich was the most expensive among major German cities for office and retail rents in 2024, based on an annual analysis by Thomas Daily, which surveyed more than 1,000 market experts in Germany.
Data showed Munich’s average prime office rent paid was €54.60 per square meter, followed by Frankfurt at €48.60 per square meter and Berlin at €45.40 per square meter. Munich’s retail rent averaged €325 per square meter for space of between 60 and 120 square meters in prime locations, with Frankfurt averaging €269 per square meter and Berlin at €263 per square meter.
5. Canada: Newfoundland hoteliers want to fill more rooms with tourists
Newfoundland hotel rooms aren’t jammed with tourists coming to enjoy unique local customs and appreciate the whales, seabirds, icebergs and stunning natural landscapes, but they should be, according to hotel industry veterans.
Many of the area’s hotel beds are filled instead with “road warriors,” observes Clayton Hospitality co-owner Judy Sparkes. She has run a total of 16 hotels along with her two brothers in the sprawling, sparsely populated Canadian province. The siblings recently sold the last three hotels of the Clayton Hospitality portfolio, thus ending their involvement in the hotel business that their father launched in 1968.
6. US: Amazon’s returning workforce helps Seattle feel ‘a lot like 2019’
The area around Amazon’s downtown Seattle headquarters is bustling, with employees lining up at restaurants and food trucks at lunchtime on a recent afternoon as activity approaches pre-pandemic levels.
After three full months of Amazon’s requirement that workers come to offices five days a week, downtown Seattle foot traffic — especially in the area around the e-commerce giant’s headquarters — has reached daily averages not seen since before the pandemic hit in early 2020, the latest data from the Downtown Seattle Association shows. Seattle’s downtown averaged nearly 94,000 daily workers in February, representing nearly two-thirds of the daily worker traffic in February 2020, according to cellphone location data.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.