* CapitaLand Ltd.'s Ascott Operations Eight Ltd. acquired an Irish company that owns a hotel in Dublin for €31.3 million, subject to adjustments post-completion.
* Brookfield Asset Management Inc. completed its acquisition of the CityPoint Tower in the City of London, CoStar U.K. reported, citing a note to the London bourse. Brookfield did not disclose the purchase price, aside from revealing that it was more than the property's December 2015 valuation. The news outlet, however, reported that the 36-story building was sold for roughly £560 million.
UK and Ireland
* Oxford Properties Group agreed to sell a 50% stake in King Edward Court and St. Martin's Court in London to Madison International Realty for approximately £200 million, according to a news release.
* Listed real estate agent Countrywide plc confirmed media reports that it is considering a potential sale of commercial property adviser Lambert Smith Hampton. Countrywide said there was no certainty that it would move ahead with the sale.
* Tesco is buying back a supermarket from Standard Life Investments in Shrewsbury for approximately £53.8 million and another in Burgess Hill for about £70 million, Property Week reported.
The supermarket chain has also reportedly exercised an option to buy back three stores that it sold to Legal & General Property for a price that is more than the £46.6 million it received for the properties in 2011.
* Newly listed Civitas Social Housing PLC made its first acquisition since its November IPO, Property Week reported. The social housing REIT acquired a portfolio of 28 supported living properties in London, the Midlands and southern England for £65 million.
* To answer the growth of deliveries to office workers and improve the efficiency of Square Mile operations, the City of London Corp. is considering enforcing office developers to provide consolidation centers for postal deliveries, Property Week reported. The move, if implemented, will help establish a new industrial submarket in London, the publication said.
* Hometrack predicts city-level house price growth in 2017 to be at 4%, anchored by growth in large regional cities, but dependent on the scale of a market slowdown in the U.K. capital city.
* Meanwhile, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said that gross lending in the U.K.'s housing market in November amounted to £21 billion, up 3% both year over year and from October. The council also anticipates gross lending levels of £248 billion and £252 billion in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
* Over in Ireland, CG Hotels received the green light for its €60 million plan to add a six-story extension at the Radisson Blu hotel and a new hotel beside it at Dublin Airport, the Irish Independent reported. The floor extension will expand the Radisson Blu by 131 rooms, and the new seven-story hotel next to it will contain 144 rooms.
* An Bord Pleanála granted GSA permission to build a 571-room student accommodation in Dublin. The scheme will also have retail space, according to the Irish Independent.
Germany and Austria
* PATRIZIA Immobilien AG bought the 204-room, 18-story Ghotel hotel in Würzburg, Germany, from Würzburg Estates. Both parties in the transaction agreed to keep the financial terms of the deal confidential, according to a release.
* Townscape One and Sassenscheidt will commence work on a €200 million residential project in Dresden, Germany, in early 2017, Property Investor Europe reported. The five-building complex will contain approximately 900 flats when it is fully completed in the fall of 2018.
* In Austria, IMMOFINANZ AG is ramping up its strategic withdrawal from noncore businesses after it sold a retail portfolio of 88 properties in eight provinces to an unnamed local real estate investor.
Sweden
* Klövern AB sold four properties in Säter to Landstinget Dalarna and 12 properties in Karlskrona to its municipal government for a combined 850 million Swedish kronor. The Säter portfolio sale is expected to close Dec. 15, while the Karlskrona properties will be completely transferred May 2, 2017.
Spain
* HNA Group said that the statement provided by NH Hotel Group's board over the new management contract inked with Hesperia does not address the shareholder's key concerns and requested for greater transparency to be provided. It continued to iterate the need for an independent third-party review of the management contract's terms.
* The residential real estate markets of Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, the Basque country and the Balearic islands are expected to record the most encouraging growth in 2017, Knight Frank said in its annual market trends report, PIE reported. The property consultancy added that the Spanish residential market will commence on a new growth cycle.
Italy
* Eurocastle Investment Ltd. expects to pay €50 million to €70 million for "a significant portion" of UniCredit S.p.A.'s nonperforming loans in Italy, which is a portfolio worth about €17.7 billion. The investment will be made with other affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC.
* Hines, on behalf of CNP Assurances, wrapped up its acquisition of a 22,000-square-meter trophy office property on Piazza Edison in Milan. The investment carried a €220 million price tag.
Norway
* Citycon Oyj agreed to buy a 19,000-square-meter office building in Bergen for 710 million Norwegian kroner. Anchor tenant Tryg is the seller of the property. The mall landlord said that the acquisition could allow the company to develop and expand the adjacent 31,500-square-meter Oasen shopping center, which it also owns.
Middle East and Africa
* According to STR, under-contract hotel rooms in the Middle East in November increased 10.8% year over year to 159,922 rooms. In the month, there were 560 hotel projects in the region, 267 of which were in the construction phase.
In Africa, the total number of rooms under contract in the comparable period was up 10.9% to 58,878. There were 316 projects in the region during the month, 165 hotels of which fell into the in-construction phase.
Other Real Estate news
* Israeli-headquartered Gazit-Globe Ltd. will not proceed with a planned public offering of convertible unsecured subordinated debentures in Canada due to "current market conditions," just three days after filing the preliminary prospectus for the C$90.0 million issuance. This would have been the company's first public offering in Canada.
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