Realcast: £3.5bn London megadeal, Provada back in the mix, data collection key to ESG

In the spotlight this week:

The £3.5 billion mega deal that will merge UK-based Capital & Counties and Shaftesbury will create a London-focused REIT with a portfolio of 2.9 million sq ft encompassing much of Covent Garden Carnaby Street and the Chinatown area.

Meanwhile, logistics is still front and centre with CBRE Investment Management setting a €5 billion target for the open-ended pan European logistics fund, newly created from the merger of two existing funds. And also active in the sector, PGIM Real Estate has bought two logistics investments north of Paris.

The retail market is gathering momentum again and last week was also 10th Ellandai’s Retail Rocks event which brought many players out for a face-to-face event in central London.

Also in London, last week was the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower cladding fire which saw a residential apartment block engulfed in flames causing the deaths of 72 people.

Meanwhile, the battle against inflation saw interest rate rises in the UK and US, where the Fed announced its biggest interest rate rise for nearly 30 years. The Eurozone awaits rises which was the source of much discussion at the three-day Provada real estate show in Amsterdam, attended this year by 25,000 people.

Real Asset Media was there and staged a number of Investment Briefings, particularly focusing on different aspects of ESG. While one session reinforced the importance of close cooperation with tenants in order to make buildings sustainable, another discussed how to maximise ESG impact and the importance of collecting and comparing data was to the fore.

A briefing on Scotland revealed that the country is leading the way in reducing carbon emissions in public buildings.

There has been a strong Dutch flavour to some of the news in the last week. For instance, Maritim hotels signed a new 50-year lease on the massive €500 million congress hotel which Union Investment is developing in Amsterdam and Unibail Rodamco Westfield announced it has sold the Almere Centrum to UMB Group for  €155 million.

Click on the video to see the full discussion or listen to the podcast below.