1. Saudi Arabia: Investment firm buys high-profile hotel
Riyadh-based investment bank Albilad Capital acquired the 269-room Mövenpick Hotel & Residences Riyadh for approximately 1 billion Saudi Arabian riyals or $266.7 million, as hoteliers look to capitalize on rising tourism in the Middle Eastern country.
Albilad bought the hotel, opened in December 2021 in the Al-Ghadeer district of the Saudi capital adjacent to the King Abdullah Financial District, through its Albilad Hospitality Fund. Albilad CEO Zaid Almufarih called the deal “a strategic step forward” as operators anticipate strong demand from upcoming events in Saudi Arabia that include the 2027 Asian Games, Expo Riyadh 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
2. UK: Brazilian bank’s London office lease sets rent record
Property owner AXA IM Alts signed Banco Master, a Brazilian bank focused on investment brokerage, to a top-floor lease in London’s tallest office tower at a rent that sources said is the highest ever paid in the central business district.
Banco Master leased the 21,000-square-foot 56th floor at £122 per square foot — not only the highest paid in 2024 in the City of London but also believed to be the highest ever paid. The city’s average Grade A rent is £70.21 per square foot, according to brokerage Savills, and the bank lease underscores a trend in which many prime offices in London continue to post significant rent growth.
3. France: European fund manager targets US properties
Corum Asset Management, a European firm with over €8 billion in assets under management, is seeking to take advantage of distressed but improving U.S. property investment conditions through a new French fund that is similar in structure to a real estate investment trust.
“Real estate in the United States may be suffering, but the fundamentals are robust,” said Philippe Cervesi, president of Paris-based Corum, noting the American market’s status as the world’s largest and its similarities with the United Kingdom market, which he said is “quite favorable to investors in general.” Corum founder and Chairman Frédéric Puzin said diversifying into the U.S. market “offers us a form of counter-cyclical protection against European risk.”
4. Germany: Developer VGP plans large business park
Belgian developer VGP plans to build a business park with around 70,000 square meters of rental space in Bernau, Germany, northeast of Berlin, in response to rising logistics demand.
The developer is targeting a 141,000-square-meter site near the A11 highway, with plans calling for five sections each spanning between 9,400 and 23,900 square meters that can be rented in units of around 1,500 square meters or more. Preleasing is underway, with construction of the solar-equipped, sustainable complex scheduled to start in the first half of 2025.
5. Canada: Apartment rents decline for first time in three years
Apartment rents are now declining across Canada on an annual basis for the first time in more than three years, according to a national survey.
National asking rents for all residential property types declined by an average of 1.2% in October from a year earlier, the first annual decline since July 2021, according to a report from Rentals.ca and data firm Urbanation. “This is happening as the key drivers of rent growth in recent years, a strengthening economy, quickly rising population and worsening homeownership affordability are beginning to reverse,” Urbanation President Shaun Hildebrand said in the report’s commentary.
6. US: 7-Eleven parent mulls potential buyout
An executive and large shareholder of 7-Eleven’s parent company is leading an offer to take the world’s largest convenience store chain private as the Japanese-based company mulls an unsolicited takeover bid from the owner of Circle K.
Ito-Kogyo, a company linked to an executive with Seven & I Holdings, the owner of 7-Eleven, offered $58 billion to take it private, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Seven & I has held “preliminary and limited” discussions with Alimentation Couche-Tard, the parent of Circle K, on its bid, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources. The buyout talks come as convenience stores in the U.S. and Canada are rapidly expanding through acquisitions and location openings, and as retailers enhance food offerings in a bid to boost sales.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.