Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate has bought a high-street retail asset in Madrid for €30m.

The investor said it has bought Puerta del Sol 9 in Plaza Puerta del Sol in the Spanish capital. The firm will invest €10m in redevelopment.

Blackstone Real Estate Partners has acquired an additional three assets in Portugal and Spain which will be managed by its European retail platform, Multi Corporation. 

Blackstone acquired these shopping centres through the acquisition of the shares of the CG Malls Europe Fund, for just under €500m (GBP £356.m).

Blackstone has bought a shopping centre portfolio in Portugal and Spain, which will be managed by its Multi Corporation retail manager.

Blackstone’s Real Estate Partners Europe IV bought shares in the three assets from Commerz Real’s CG Malls Europe Fund.

The investor is understood to have paid around €500m for the portfolio, according to media reports.

When a record-breaking property deal needs to be pulled together in less than a month, one doesn't have the luxury of waiting to get back to the office to make an important phone call. A sidewalk in the middle of bustling midtown Manhattan will do just fine.

Such was the backdrop for a key moment in the deal-making process for The Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo's acquisition of a $23 billion commercial real estate portfolio from GE Capital Real Estate. Parent company, GE, is divesting its GE Capital platform to focus on growing its higher-performing industrial businesses and real estate is among the first parts to be offloaded. 

Capital raised by the world’s leading private equity real estate firms has grown from $176.5 billion in 2014 to $224 billion in 2015, a 27% increase according to the 2015 Private Equity Real Estate (PERE) 50. The report ranks the top 50 private equity real estate firms by the amount of capital raised over a five year qualifying period. 

In February, the General Council of Notaries registered home sales of 26,562. After adjusting for the typical seasonality of the month, we are seeing a slowdown in sales growth relative to recent months. In February, transactions were up 1.4% compared to January.

Europe dominated private real estate fundraising in 2014, raising a total of $40.3 billion, which is 82 percent more than in 2013, according to research from PERE’s Research & Analytics division. According to fund managers and investors, this improvement shows no sign of abating due to an expected influx of US cash. 

One fund manager speaking at PERE’s Investor Council held in Versailles in late March revealed that he raised €250 million for Spain in only five months, primarily from US investors. Another European fund manager in attendance said he was also on the fundraising trail, and targeting US investors, but declined to give his target away.

Private debt fundraising and funds currently in market are examined in this extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Private Debt, Q1 2015 - Q1 2015 saw 19 private debt funds reach a final close, securing an aggregate USD16 billion in commitments. This is a drop on the USD22 billion raised in Q4 2014 by 28 funds, but an increase on the amount of capital raised in the first quarter of 2014, when USD12 billion was accumulated.

New research by Cordea Savills shows Spain’s Office sector offers one of the most compelling investment opportunities in Europe because of its strong correlation with the unemployment rate, which is falling sharply.

European commercial real estate investment has registered its most active start of the year since 2007 with transaction volumes of EUR64.3 billion, a 54 per cent rise in the first quarter compared with the same period of last year.

European commercial real estate investment registered its most active start of the year since 2007 with transaction volumes of €64.3 billion, a 54% rise in the first quarter compared with the same period of last year, analysis by research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA) shows. 

Liquidity in real estate investment relates to the ease with which investors can enter and exit a market, with liquid markets characterised by a high transactional turnover of assets. Research undertaken by DTZ, with liquidity ratios allowing for a like-for-like comparison of markets, shows that the United Kingdom was Europe’s most liquid commercial property market last year, with an 11 percent ratio of deals undertaken and retaining its premier position. Sweden was second and Finland third.

Before the ink was even dry on the Indian government’s draft REIT-proposal legislation, Bangalore, India–based Embassy Group was planning a major offering. In partnership with The Blackstone Group, the Indian developer will launch a Rs 50 billion (€74 million) REIT, possibly by the end of 2015. The 2.51 million-square-metre portfolio of income-producing commercial real estate joint-owned by Blackstone and Embassy illustrates one of the roles that REITs can play in new and emerging REIT markets — as an exit path for real estate private equity funds.

A recent article published by the Spanish daily El Mundo explains how Real Estate Investment Trusts, known as SOCIMIs in Spain, are playing a leading role in putting Spanish property back on the map for big investors, and reactivating the real estate market. It’s a bit technical, but interesting for institutional investors.

Spain’s economy grew at the fastest pace in seven years in the first quarter, putting it on track to outpace its euro-area neighbors as the government forecast sustained growth would keep driving down unemployment.

In late 2013, the local authorities of Madrid promoted retail tourism as a strategy to boost growth following almost four years of recession.  The initiative was to promote the city as a pure shopping destination and position Madrid as a benchmark in dominant tourist markets, especially amongst Asian visitors who usually target London and Paris as the top destinations for shopping.  With this in mind, the authorities have improved public amenities as well as the public realm beyond the luxury districts.  One of the initiatives was to install LED screens to mimic the flavour found on Piccadilly Circus in London and Time Square in New York echoing also what Asian tourists usually see in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.

AXA Real Estate has bought a portfolio of Spanish bank branches for €308m.

The investment manager said it completed the purchase of 381 assets leased to Santander. 

The 90,000 sqm portfolio was sold by URO Property Holdings.

AXA said it was acting for two institutional clients.

Fitch Ratings has revised upwards its growth prospects for Spain in 2015 and 2016, to 2% and 2.3%, respectively. In this context of recovery, the agency notes that “new credit growth has been more robust during the first quarter of 2015” and it expects this trend to continue for the rest of the year. Although, the pace will depend on “the strength of the economic recovery and consumer confidence”. “The banks’ healthier balance sheets and initiatives being taken by the ECB to improve liquidity, including the TLTRO (long-term auctions) should support this increased lending”

The easy pickings are over. Increasing competition for good deals in the Spanish real estate sector mean that international funds need to turn to development in search of high returns, writes property expert Mikel Echavarren in an article for Idealista.com, a property portal.

A stabilizing economy and increase in investor confidence are making for a bustling transactions environment in Spain’s once beleaguered hotel industry.International and domestic investors are moving back big time into the Spanish hotel sector after years of decline, as now affordable assets go on the block and the country’s tourism industry bounces back with record numbers of foreign arrivals, according to investors, brand executives and analysts.