German cities have recorded Europe’s highest growth in retail-property investment so far this year, as demand by international retailers has driven up rents, offering investors good returns.
Turmoil in Europe and fears of a double-dip recession have persuaded some commercial real-estate investors to step to the sidelines. Others, like Associated Estates Realty, continue looking for purchases.
With U.S. retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap pushing into Europe, analysts are debating a key question: Has there been enough recent development to satisfy this new demand for space?
Commercial real estate markets, like the broader economy, are approaching midyear on their firmest footing since before the onset of the recession, with property fundamentals improving across an increasing range of markets and property types. … The potential for the sovereign debt crisis to spread remains a key threat to stability, however. If resulting shifts in bond markets and austerity plans remain reasonably well-contained, Europe's challenges will …
Germany may be one of the hottest property-investment markets in Europe right now, but a political backlash against private-equity investors who bought German residential housing companies is spreading.
By Bloomberg News June 20 (Bloomberg) — China’s pledge to make the yuan more flexible may boost shares denominated in the currency when markets open tomorrow, China International Capital Corp. and Societe Generale SA said. “If it leads to appreciation for the yuan, it’s good news for the market,” Hao Hong , global equity strategist for CICC in Beijing, said in a report today
By Bloomberg News June 20 (Bloomberg) — China said it will allow a more flexible yuan, signaling an end to the currency’s two-year-old peg to the dollar a week before a Group of 20 summit. The decision was made after the world’s third-largest economy improved, the central bank said in a statement on its website yesterday, without indicating a timeframe for the change
By Zahra Hankir June 20 (Bloomberg) — Dubai’s benchmark stock index rose the most in 10 weeks and Egyptian shares gained, leading a rally in Middle East markets on growing confidence that Europe will contain its debt crisis.
By Jeff Green June 20 (Bloomberg) — Chrysler Group LLC’s Jeep brand will become the subsidiary’s primary global make in the first half of next year as Fiat SpA emphasizes the Lancia nameplate in Europe, a top executive said. Chrysler’s minivan, Sebring and 300 models will be rebadged as Lancias across most of Europe at the end of the first quarter or early in the second, Michael Manley , Chrysler Group’s international chief, said in an interview. Sharing models among the brands is part of a plan outlined by Fiat and Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne in November, Manley said.