* Barratt Developments PLC CEO David Thomas said customer demand for new homes and an attractive lending environment supported the London developer's "strong" performance in the Jan. 1 to May 6 period. Weekly sales rate in the period remained flat year over year at 0.80 net private reservations per active outlet, while average weekly net private reservations was 302, compared to 299 in the year-ago period.
* Canada-based Oxford Properties Group, through Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is committing £200 million to GLP Pte. Ltd.'s recently launched development platform, European Development Partners I. The European fund focuses on logistics development and is expected to hit €1.7 billion when fully leveraged and invested.
UK and Ireland
* HFF Real Estate Ltd. confirmed that Blackstone Group LP sold the Cannon Bridge House office asset in the City of London for £248 million, after it was reported in March that FG Asset Management and The Valesco Group bought the office property. The asset comprises two interconnected buildings: the 91,698-square-foot River Building and the 194,897-square-foot Atrium Building.
* Shaftesbury PLC signed a £22.7 million deal, including costs, to purchase the freehold of 35 and 36 Great Marlborough St. in Carnaby, London. The purchase involves 3,000 square feet of retail space across two units, with 4,250 square feet of office area on the upper floors. The asset produces £540,000 per year in contracted rent.
* British Land Co. PLC is selling the third-party portfolio within its property management business, Broadgate Estates Ltd., to Savills PLC for an undisclosed sum. As a part of the deal, the company will transfer roughly 160 employees to Savills.
* Following its £150 million IPO, Urban Exposure PLC debuted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the UEX ticker May 9, with a £165 million market cap.
* Barratt Homes purchased the 22-acre Matthew Boulton College development site from the Birmingham City Council and Homes England, which has planning permission in place for the construction of 778 homes, Property Week reported. The project is slated to commence in the summer.
* The Mayor of London has called for the Countryside Properties and Quadrant Housing Trust's development of 2,900 homes in East London, about a month after the Havering Council blocked plans for the project, Construction Enquirer reported. The two developers are looking to construct a new neighborhood across the 29-hectare site of a former Ford assembly plant in South Dagenham.
* According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 65% of housing agents surveyed in London reported a drop in prices in April, the lowest reading since February 2009 amid a nationwide housing slump. The gauge of house prices in the U.K. declined to negative 8 during the month, the most negative figure since November 2012.
* Patron Capital is planning to sell the 16,757-square-meter Northside Shopping Centre in Coolock, Dublin, in the upper range of €50 million through joint agents Savills and HWBC, The Irish Times reported. The retail asset generates about €4 million in gross rent, translating to a return of more than 6% for the buyer, the report added.
Germany and Hungary
* BMO Real Estate Partners sold an 18-asset retail portfolio in Germany to a local pension fund, according to PropertyEU.
* Developer ECE Projektmanagement GmbH & Co. KG unveiled plans for a new three-story shopping center in Budapest's Óbuda district, featuring over 170 shops across a leasable area of more than 50,000 square meters. Work on the project will begin in 2019, with the mall opening scheduled for 2021.
Other real estate news
* After separating from its local partner MGF Developments Ltd. in India, Dubai-based Emaar Properties PJSC is looking to sell land parcels and a 90-room Fortune Select hotel to focus on its premium projects and expand on its own in the country. The hotel could reportedly sell for up to 1 billion Indian rupees.
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Cam Nones contributed to this report.
As of May 9, US$1 was equivalent to 67.31 Indian rupees.