The Norwegian oil fund has sold its 50 percent stake in two logistics properties in Spain through its joint venture with Prologis, it said on Thursday.

The fund bought the stake in 2013 for 20.6 million euros ($23.27 million) and has now sold it for 25.1 million euros, it added.

MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indexes, portfolio risk and performance analytics and ESG research, has recorded an increase in global total returns to 10.7% in 2015 as indicated in IPD Global Annual Property Index.

The robust growth in total returns for Spain and neighboring Portugal, which rose to 12.1% from 7.2%, signalled that investors are growing in their enthusiasm for undervalued assets in these recovering markets. 

Spain’s property returns are at their highest level for a decade, according to MSCI.

It recorded a 15.3% total return in 2015 in Spanish property investment in its IPD Spain Annual Property Index.

The index tracks the performance of 475 investments, with a total capital value of €17.6bn as of December 2015.

The total return marks a significant rise from 9.4% in 2014 and is the strongest performance since a record 16.9% in 2006.

A slightly subdued start to the first quarter of 2016 has seen just EUR3.7 billion of closed European real estate loan (RE loan) and real estate owned (REO) sales completed following a record year in 2015.

The loan sales market in Ireland and Spain has been successful due to the early adoption of asset management agencies and realistic provisions for their NPLs. 
 

Some Spanish banks are advancing more loans to home builders and cutting their borrowing costs, eight years after they froze credit for construction as the nation’s property bubble burst.

CaixaBank SA, Spain’s third-largest bank, will this year lend 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) for developer financing, more than twice the amount in 2015, the lender said. Banco de Sabadell SA gave 850 million euros in loans to build homes in Madrid and Barcelona last year as the value of some new-builds rose as much as 10 percent, said Joan Bertran, head of real estate investment at Spain’s fifth largest bank.

Hilton Worldwide has signed a franchise agreement with Grupo Aventia for its first Curio Collection hotel in Spain. Following restoration work, the 33-room Gran Hotel Montesol Ibiza will open as part of the collection this summer. The hotel, in the historic centre of Ibiza town, was the first purpose-built hotel on the island when it opened in 1933.

Spanish property investment company NEINVER is planning to open a new shopping centre in Viladecans near Barcelona this Autumn under its The Style Outlets brand.

The Style Outlets now manages 10 centres across Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Portugal, with the new Viladecans centre its first in Catalonia.

Hispania has completed the acquisition at a discount, of the mortgage debts of Dunas Hotels & Resort, to various financial entities, as part of its plan to acquire a total of 1,183 keys distributed in four hotels.

CBRE Global Investors has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 16 logistics assets totaling 250,000 sqm on behalf of one of its separate account clients. Metrovacesa and Parques Intermodales Gran Europa have sold the portfolio that is located in the third ring of the Henares corridor, along the A-2 motorway (Madrid-Barcelona), which constitutes one of the main logistics hubs in Spain.

European hotel investment in 2015 burst through the €20 billion mark for the first time in the history of the asset class, demonstrating the increasing appreciation of hotel real estate as an institutionally-accepted and progressively mainstream investment class across the continent.

Over the past 12 months, the institutional appetite to invest in core real estate has heightened considerably thanks to low interest rates and the associated impact on bond yields, and Middle Eastern investors continue to target luxury assets in capital cities for the preservation of wealth and prestige.

Although recent transaction activity numbers for Spain differ widely — up 36 percent in 2015 against 2014, to €11 billion, according to Cushman & Wakefield; down 28 percent in the final quarter of 2015, on a year-on-year basis, according to Real Capital Analytics — Spain is still seen as a peripheral–euro zone opportunity market that has yet to regain past glories, and recent deal announcements would appear to confirm this.

CIC, Norway' GPFG and ADIA doubling down in the asset class is a welcome development, but it might not last. 

Among the most frequently visited news stories on PERENews.com over the past seven days were three stories of sovereign wealth funds meaningfully furthering their commitments to real estate.

Mexico’s Carlos Slim is pushing further into investments in Spain, where fellow billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates have also made bets, as he wagers on the European nation’s emergence from a property crash.

Slim, the world’s fourth-richest person on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, made a bid for Barcelona-based Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas SA last month through his financing vehicle, Inversora Carso. The move culminated a series of investments by Slim that began in 2014 to shore up the balance sheet of one of Spain’s biggest builders. As part of the deal, Carso also bid for Madrid-based developer Realia Business SA, of which FCC owns a 37 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Spanish services and manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in two months, outpacing the country’s euro-area peers in a challenge for the European Central Bank.

The Spain Markit Composite PMI index jumped to 55.1 in March, beating the median economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey calling for an increase to 54.2. The Spanish data contrasts with sluggish growth in the euro area, which saw the same index rising marginally to 53.1 in March from 53 in February and below a flash estimate of 53.7.

Norway proposed letting its sovereign wealth fund raise real estate holdings by about $17 billion, while rejecting a call to expand into infrastructure projects.

The upper limit on real estate investments for the $850 billion fund, the world’s biggest, should be raised to 7 percent from 5 percent, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The real estate assets will also be separated from the overall portfolio and “be included in the existing framework for deviations,” according to the ministry.

When compared with its peers in Western Europe, the Spanish economy is currently displaying stronger growth than most. The country has left the doldrums of its post-2008 economic misery behind it, and the property sector has kept pace with the more general recovery. Our analysis provides an insight into the market as it currently stands and reveals what opportunities exist for investors.  

Madrid’s ambitious programme of reforms over the past few years has had a positive impact on Spain’s economy. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that the country has once again been on the radar of real estate investors since at least 2014. Starting out, interest was largely confined to domestic family offices, but they were soon followed by opportunity-minded investors from Europe and further afield. At the same time, a growing number of investors started enquiring about asset management services. Today, scores of the international scene’s core investors point to Iberia when asked for interesting investment openings in 2016.

A total of €8.8 billion was invested in Spain’s commercial property in 2015, which is the highest figure since 2008. 2015 was a record year in terms of investment volume in Spain, increasing by 13% compared to the previous year. By sectors, offices and retail remain the most popular segments for investors. Shopping centres and High Street recorded €4.6 billion, accounting for 52% of investment. Offices accounted for €3.3 billion, representing 38% of investment. The logistics sector has grown exponentially, mainly due to the higher yields, reaching record levels of more than €850 million in 2015. Nevertheless, hotels is close behind. This is for the strong recovery of the tourist sector - both national and international. 

Anbang walks out, but Chinese money isn’t checking out of Western real estate

The insurer’s surrender in the Starwood bidding war marks the end of one deal gone awry. But Chinese capital remains a force to be reckoned with.

Yesterday, Marriott International emerged the winner of the weeks-long bidding war for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. 

Spain hasn’t had a government since December and missed its 2015 budget-deficit goal. That didn’t stop its sovereign securities from outperforming benchmark German bonds this week, holding to their gains after Standard & Poor’s affirmed the country’s BBB+ rating.

The Spanish residential sector showed signs of a solid recovery in 2015 after eight years of collapse. Price corrections up to 40% from peak values, coupled with favourable financing conditions, are signalling the start of a new cycle, with the market becoming more institutionalised as investor interest rises. The institutional investment market has been dominated by UK and US funds, focused both on social housing and multi-family assets. Lonestar led the market recovery early in 2015, when it acquired Neinor Homes and over a hundred plots of land to develop residential on over the next four years. The increasing demand for rental property has increased the rental share of the market from 11.5% to 19.2% over the last 10 years and is predicted to continue. Despite low yields at 3-4%, further capital gains are expected in the mid-term.