ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Europe

The impact of COVID-19 on the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector has been less severe than expected, proving the resilience of the asset class, as shown in Bonard’s annual report.

In January 2021, Antoine Grolin, Chairman of Ceetrus and Founding Chairman of Nodi, announced the creation of a new mixed-use property management and development services company, Nhood. The change affects ten countries, including Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine in CEE. The reason for setting up the new company is twofold. On the one hand, the separation of the real estate assets of Ceetrus Property and, on the other hand, the merging of the employees of Ceetrus and Nodi under a unified brand name.

Oxford Properties Group has agreed to acquire pan-European investment and asset manager M7 Real Estate. The investment is in line with Oxford’s global capital allocation strategy which has seen it both enter new geographic markets and increase its weighting to the logistics, multifamily and life sciences sectors. Across the globe, Oxford is building, buying and growing world-class businesses to meet its capital allocation priorities.

Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) transacted more than €2.5 billion globally in 2020, including c. €2.1 billion in Europe and c. €2457 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included nearly €1.7 billion of acquisitions and €833 million of disposals, resulting in a net investment of €842 million. The firm now manages approximately €21.2 billion (over USD 25 billion) in assets under management (AuM), a company record.

Globally, there is set to be a 50% surge in investment into commercial real estate in the second half of the year, predicts Colliers International in its new Global Capital Markets 2021 Investor Outlook paper. In EMEA, the momentum continues in the industrial and logistics and living sectors which are less dependent on economic growth. Investors are also particularly interested in core office stock, albeit selectively, with some 32 per cent of respondents looking to invest in the sector.

European logistics real estate markets have not suffered last year from the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to fast-growing e-commerce and higher inventory levels of producers, the total expected take-up in 11 European countries of 23.6 million sqm for 2020 is only 3% down compared with the record year 2019. The forecasts for this year are even better with an expected take-up of 27 million sqm – an increase of 14%. Particularly large logistics real estate markets like Germany, France, the Netherlands and Poland are expected to grow substantially.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management (BNP Paribas REIM) has successfully launched the first property fund that sets out to be compliant with the 2015 Paris Agreement, a landmark agreement that brought nations together to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. 

Real estate services company Apleona, headquartered near Frankfurt am Main, has been acquired by French private-equity company PAI Partners (PAI). The seller is Swedish financial investor EQT. The transaction is subject to approval from the antitrust and regulatory approval.

Palmira Capital Partners, one of the leading sector specialists in European logistics and industrial properties, has launched the Palmira European Core Logistics Fund.

Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, has launched the Invesco Real Estate European Living Fund, an open-ended fund investing in pan-European residential assets.