CPPIB sees opportunity in global real estate

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which bought a troubled Scottish shopping mall on Monday, said more high-quality real estate would likely come available in key markets in the coming year.

The real estate arm of the CPP Investment Board and Hammerson PLC (HMSO.L), an Anglo-French property investor, bought the Silverburn shopping center near Glasgow from receivers for 297 million British pounds ($479 million) in a 50/50 joint venture.

The acquisition of the mall after its builder went into bankruptcy highlights opportunities in real estate in major economies around the world after the sector was pummeled by the global financial crisis.

St Germain- des - Prés again Paris' most expensive real estate district

The 6th arrondissement around “Saint Germain- des- Prés” and the “Luxembourg Garden” is once again Paris’ most expensive real estate location. Following the crisis, prices fell and an average square meter, that cost €10,040 during the 4th quarter 2008, stood at €9,380 during the 3rd quarter 2009.

Paris, France -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/14/2009 -- By KHS, Paris http://www.khs.fr/

The Paris Notary Chamber released its real estate market report for the 3rd quarter 2009 in a press conference on 26 November. According to the notaries, the average square meter price for old and unoccupied apartments cost € 6,160 in the City of Paris. It decreased by 7.2% over the year but was 1.4% higher than during the 2nd quarter 2009.

According to the notaries, prices on the Paris residential real estate market increased strongly since 1998 and peaked during the 4th quarter 2008 with an average price of € 6,520 per square meter. In early 2009 they started to decline and fell by 1% in the first and by 7,8 % in the second quarter.

UPDATE 2-Hammerson in major UK, French retail prop. deals

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Anglo-French property investor Hammerson (HMSO.L) has revived its acquisition spree after a four-year lull, closing two major deals on Monday to buy a Scottish shopping centre and new retail developments in France.

The purchase of the Silverburn mall near Glasgow and up to five French retail projects, investments totalling about $1.1 billion, mark a major shift for the UK property firm, which has spent the past year rebuilding its balance sheet.

By 1200 GMT, shares of FTSE 100-listed Hammerson were up 0.2 percent, underperforming the FTSE's .FTSE 1.1 percent rise.

Hammerson, which owns 4.7 billion pounds ($7.7 billion) of real estate in the UK and France, last month said it planned a return to the construction site in 2010 as confidence rose in Europe's recovering property markets

Western Europe real estate ''to prove popular in 2010''

Commercial property markets in a number of western European regions are likely to perform more strongly than their southern counterparts next year, according to one retail estate researcher.

Matthew Richardson of Fidelity Real Estate Investment Management believes that countries including France, Germany and the UK should prove to be popular.

The Nordic nations may also become areas of focus for some investors, he added, along with the Benelux region.

However, as the firm''s head of research, he also added: "Central and eastern Europe, southern Europe and the Baltic states remain too risky until a suitably attractive premium is re-established to tempt investors."

Mr Richardson went on to note that investors may look towards real estate properties next year because of factors such as "increased risk appetite".

Meanwhile, IPD figures have recently revealed that November of this year witnessed a 2.4 growth in capital within the UK''s commercial property market.

HSBC to Sell Paris Buildings

The properties, at 103 avenue des Champs Elysees and 15 rue Vernet, have an area of 357,000 square feet combined and are the last two major corporate buildings that the U.K. bank put on sale in recent months.

HSBC recently agreed to sell its London base at Canary Wharf to the National Pension Service of Korea for £772.5 million ($1.25 billion) in cash, and its New York headquarters to Israeli investment holding company IDB Group for $330 million.

The Paris buildings are being sold to real-estate asset manger French Properties Management on behalf of private investors, the bank said in a statement, adding that it will lease back the properties for nine years.

2009 review and 2010 outlook for commercial real estate in Europe

Nick Axford

The economic aftermath of the collapse of Lehman in September 2008 has been well documented and continues to unfold. Against a background of extreme uncertainty, investment decisions froze and most of the world´s major economies entered recession. Unemployment has risen sharply across Europe and is still rising; stock markets, asset prices and business and consumer confidence tumbled, and even now the flow of credit to businesses remains patchy.

The main elements of policy response were near-zero interest rates and state intervention roughly equivalent to a sixth of GDP in Europe and the US. Not surprisingly, these have had some stabilising effect. Recent economic data are more varied and suggest that some economies are resuming a growth path, albeit a gradual one. While many economies and real estate markets will therefore enter the new year with prospects apparently looking brighter than seemed likely even a few months ago, this has been a challenging year to say the least.

Club Med To Sell Real Estate Assets

PARIS (Dow Jones) --Most of French resort operator Club Mediterranee SA's (CU.FR) real estate assets will eventually be sold, the company's Chief Executive Henri Giscard d'Estaing said Friday in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

The company plans to focus its activities on managing the resorts, and its real estate strategy is "asset light," Giscard d'Estaing said.

"Most of the (real estate) assets that we fully own are set to be sold," Giscard d'Estaing told Dow Jones Newswires, after the company presented its 2009 full-year earnings.

Some of these assets can't be immediately sold, notably those located in French overseas territories as Club Mediterranee has been granted subsidies by the French government, Giscard d'Estaing added.

Herald de Paris announces a new Luxury real estate program

We were not satisfied.

We next created the world’s first and only live, completely interactive morning news and “infotainment” program, Le Morning Show, as a way to further deliver our news to market. Why? Because we discovered early that we were not just publishing news stories in print faster than our peers, we were also beating the cable news guys to breaking news stories by as much as three hours.

In all, the Herald de Paris is being read in 157 countries, worldwide, published in two languages. So, too, we feed our news services to more than 17,000 websites around the globe. We do not get specific circulation figures from our media partners, but we currently estimate our potential daily audience to be as high as 11 million households. Honestly, I suspect our reach is a little lower. We do not concern ourselves with overall volume. We are more concerned with conveying the right information to our blossoming clientele.