Spanish home sales rose 17 percent in June from a year earlier, the largest increase since March 2014, as the country recovers from the worst recession in its democratic history.

Transactions rose 3.8 percent from the previous month, according to data compiled by the National Statistics Institute.

The Greek debt crisis has had little impact on the appeal of European property to US-Based investors who acquired over $28b of commercial property there in just the first half of 2015. It is not just US investors, buyers from around the globe have doubled property acquisitions in Europe over the past two years. However, US investors are the most active and represent about a third of all cross-border activity there. 

While most US markets have fully recovered and property prices have returned or surpassed prior highs, the recovery in Europe has trailed and is providing ripe opportunities for many investors, particularly private equity funds seeking outsized returns. Not included in the investment volumes are tens of billions of non-performing loan portfolios sold by European banks that have been acquired, primarily by these equity funds. If combined, direct acquisitions and loan portfolios acquired by US investors over the past year well exceeds the $57.4b of investment from US buyers recorded in 2007. 

Estimates point to GDP growth accelerating to 1% in the second quarter from 0.9% in the first, making Spain yet again one of the fastest growing countries in the eurozone.  The monthly performance of several important indicators revealed a peak of activity in May, moderating somewhat in June. So despite the excellent Q2 GDP data,  analysts maintain their full-year growth forecasts at 3.1%.

So economic stagnation is the new European normal, and the southern periphery the euro area's Achilles' heel? Spain just posted its strongest quarterly growth in eight years and predicts 3.3 percent growth for the year as a whole. Maybe there's a lesson here.

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has reached a final close of €2.9 billion on its latest pan-European debt fund, Commercial Real Estate Senior 9 (CRE9), breaking through its €2.5 billion target.

The firm also announced that it was awarded a £350 million ($546 million; €498 million) separate debt mandate by a UK pension fund, bringing its real estate debt platform to a total of €11.3 billion. 

The new fund is the first to include a German feeder fund which will issue rated notes to German-regulated institutional investors. The structure was built in response to discussions with investors and incorporates a €350 million commitment that is part of the final close total.

Record low returns in fixed-income investments and continued yield compression in prime real estate is accelerating the emergence of European real estate debt as an investible asset class, the chief executive of CREFC Europe has said.

Downward pressure on bonds, quantitative easing in the EU and Japan and the likelihood that record low interest rates will persist for some time has created a perfect storm for a booming property debt market place.

Regulatory pressure for insurers to reduce real estate equity fund investments also plays a role and according to Savills, 63 percent of the 104 new lenders between 2012-2014 fell into the ‘other lenders’ category.

One important feature of the new real estate debt landscape is the growing presence of multi-asset investors. Risks are managed by bringing together equity real estate and fixed income expertise to focus on real estate lending, as an alternative to CMBS or other low yielding corporate bonds.

Europe’s commercial real estate investment market has had its strongest first half in eight years, putting it on course to eclipse the annual record level attained at the tail-end of the last market boom in 2007 by December, analysis by research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA) shows.

Europe’s commercial real estate investment market has had its strongest first half in eight years, putting it on course to eclipse the annual record level attained at the tail-end of the last market boom in 2007 by December

M&G Real Estate has spent €175m on a central Madrid office asset, its first deal in Spain.

The investment manager bought the building for its open-ended, core European strategy, which is backed by UK and European pension funds.

After the Spanish real estate bubble popped in 2008, prices declined more than 40%, according to the real estate portal Fotocasa. Then last year prices began to level, and it looked like time to follow the classic advice and invest at the bottom.

Spanish unemployment fell to the lowest level in almost four years in the second quarter, adding to expectations that stronger growth is translating into faster job creation.

The jobless rate dropped to 22.4 percent from 23.8 percent in the previous quarter, the National Statistics Institute said in Madrid on Thursday. That is in line with a Bloomberg News survey of 11 economists that called for a decline to 22.5 percent.

The Bank of Spain increased its 2015 growth forecast as domestic demand gathers momentum, Governor Luis Maria Linde said Wednesday.

The Spanish economy will grow 3.1 percent this year, compared with the previous projection of 2.8 percent, Linde said in a speech to a parliamentary committee in Madrid. He maintained the Bank of Spain’s estimate of 2.7 percent for 2016.

Despite on-going uncertainty around Greece’s future in the Euro, on a relative pricing basis real estate remains attractive compared with other fixed income assets and investor demand continues to be strong according to the research. 

Blackstone Group LP is buying a portfolio of bad loans with a nominal value of 790 million euros ($858 million) from Spanish lender CaixaBank SA, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

London-based private equity real estate fund manager Benson Elliot has agreed to sell its trophy Cornerstonedevelopment in Poblenou, Barcelona. A fund managed by the real estate division of UBS Global Asset Managementpurchased the property for approximately $88 million (€80 million).

Investment into the commercial real estate (CRE) market totalled nearly €56 billion in the second quarter of 2015, up 15% on Q2 2014, according to the latest figures from global real estate advisor CBRE. Although the rate of year-on-year growth in investment activity has slowed slightly compared with Q1, it is still the highest Q2 total since 2007. 

Over 70 per cent of those surveyed reported an increase in new loan originations over the past six months, with similar trends observed for refinancing, reflecting the recovery in investment markets. Of particular interest is the reduction in aggregate lending during this period, put down to write-downs and completion of loan portfolio sales during the final quarter of 2014, which was ahead of previous expectations.

UBS Global Asset Management has invested €80m ($88.3m) in a Spanish office scheme.

Fund manager Benson Elliot said it has sold the Cornerstone asset, in Poblenou, a Barcelona office district, to a fund managed by UBS.

The former said it forward-purchased the property in 2011 from Solvia, a subsidiary of Banco Sabadell, in a joint venture with Bream Real Estate.

The 20,700 sqm development, which opened in late 2013, is 77% let.

Total assets managed by the Top 100 alternative investment managers globally reached USD3.5 trillion in 2014 (USD3.3 trillion in 2013), according to research produced by Towers Watson. 

More than $1.4 trillion in global pension assets are parked in alternative investments, such as real estate, private equity and hedge funds, according to research from professional services firm Towers Watson .

Pension assets make up just over half of the money that the largest alternative-asset managers steward, it found.