From left: London, Shanghai and Paris
Every week, The Real Deal rounds up the biggest real estate news from around the globe.
United Kingdom
Taxpayers covered the €62 million payment needed in London to induce WeWork to lease 280,000 square feet of office space vacated by a UK government agency in a Brexit-driven relocation. As a result of the UK’s pending exit from the European Union, all EU agencies based in the UK must relocate to another member state. [The Guardian]
One private equity group found another to buy control of the iconic Liberty department store in London for £309 million. BlueGem Capital expects to sell for 12 times its equity investment in a 40 percent share of Liberty in a deal with Glendower Capital, formerly part of Deutsche Bank. [FT]
Homes still sell near record prices in London, but land values are sagging, as one developer’s experience illustrates. UK-based property investor and developer Capital & Counties Properties Plc owns land in London’s Earls Court district that has lost half its value since peaking in 2015. [Bloomberg]
Israel
The Israeli government started demolishing the first of 10 Palestinian apartment developments because they are too close to its security barrier in a Palestinian area next to East Jerusalem. Israel’s High Court rejected efforts to prevent demolition of the mostly unfinished apartment buildings, which had been approved by the Palestinian Authority. [NYT]
China
China’s economy grew at the slowest quarterly pace since the early 1990s, yet investment in commercial real estate remains robust, especially in Shanghai. Commercial property sales in China increased 14 percent in the first quarter to a record $17 billion. Shanghai accounted for more than a third of the mainland sales volume. [SCMP]
New Zealand
A ban on foreign buyers has put pressure on home prices in Queenstown, a mountain-ringed winter resort that had been popular with home buyers from the United States, Australia and Asia. Home prices in Queenstown nudged down in June from the same month last year, the first annual drop since 2011. [Bloomberg]
United Arab Emirates
The newest expansion of the financial district in Dubai is largely vacant. Dubai International Financial Centre spent 1 billion dirham ($272 million) to build its Gate Avenue expansion, a subterranean promenade that opened in January, but just two dozen tenants have leased space in the marble-lined, kilometer long promenade. [Bloomberg]
Qatar
Three luxury hotels in London and Paris valued at about $869 million combined hit the market as a former Qatari prime minister prepares to divest. The family office of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, who was prime minister of Qatar from 2007 to 2013, is set to sell two London hotels, the Sanderson in the Soho district and the St Martins Lane in Covent Garden; and one in Paris, the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. [Bloomberg]
Spain
The richest man in Europe boosted the value of his commercial property portfolio by 11.5 percent last year to nearly 10 billion euros ($11 billion). Amancio Ortega, founder of fashion retailer Inditex, is using his dividends from the company to acquire properties that include prime retail space in London and New York and office buildings in Madrid. [Reuters]
Poland
The luxury housing market in the capital Warsaw is on the upswing — thanks to the nation’s strong economy — with listings 20 percent above what they were last year and an increase in new construction and rehabs. While U.S. housing prices have dipped, the overall housing market in Warsaw climbed 6.7 percent in 2018. [WSJ]