European logistics is a market real estate lenders cannot afford to ignore, but it has its challenges.

Liberbank, the eighth-largest bank in Spain by market value, has sold a €602 million non-performing property loan portfolio to Bain Capital and Oceanwood.

The landscape for European real estate debt funds has changed over the past five years as investors have sought to diversify. The top five private Europe-focused funds raised this year reflect what has become a substantially larger industry and suggest a broader range of target deals for debt funds.

Liberbank has agreed to sell its real estate portfolio to a fund managed by Bain Capital for €750 million ($885 million).

TH Real Estate has acquired the hypermarket premises at L'Aljub Shopping Centre in Elche on behalf of the Southern European Value-Add (SEVA) investment vehicle, from Eroski for €18.7m.

Spain tops the 2017 edition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, The World Economic Forum global rankings for the second time. France followed in second and Germany (third), Japan (fourth, gaining five places), the United Kingdom (fifth), the United States (sixth, losing two places), Australia (seventh), Italy (eighth), Canada (ninth, up one) and Switzerland (10th, losing four places).

US asset management giants Blackstone and Brookfield have reportedly made offers to buy Spanish Banco Sabadell's hotel arm, HI Partners.

On Sunday 1 October, Catalonia held a controversial referendum for independence. The vote was deemed unconstitutional by the Spanish Constitutional Court and the central government tried to prevent it from taking place by ordering police and security force reinforcements to seize ballots and close polling locations.

Tristan Capital Partners’ European Property Investors Special Opportunities fund has sold a portfolio of seven Spanish retail properties to private equity firm MDSR Investments for €149m.

AEW announces, on behalf of its Europe Value Investors Fund (“EVI” or the “Fund”), that it has acquired the Calle de Francisco Silvela 106 office building in Madrid from a private investor for c. €30mn. 

Spain’s biggest student housing provider has sold all of its real estate assets to AXA Investment Managers–Real Assets and an unnamed Dutch institutional investor, while selling its operations to Greystar. The sale by Resa of 37 student halls marks AXA IM-RA’s entry into the European student accommodation market.

Neinor Homes has just submitted to the CNMV (the Spanish stock regulator) a relevant fact to communicate the acquisition of three fully permitted land plots. Neinor Homes closed the acquisition of a fully permitted land plot in Valencia with a buildable area of 24,000m2 suitable for the development of more than 200 units. The asset is located in Benicalap district, a consolidated residential area of the city.

Neinor Homes has submitted a relevant fact to the CNMV (the Spanish stock regulator) to communicate the closing of a portfolio acquisition of a fully permitted land portfolio in Málaga, valued in EUR 68m, suitable for the development of more than 800 units and with a 27% projected gross margin, well above the Company targets.

Traditionally, there has been a common belief that in any real estate market recovery, distressed funds are the first to arrive and, once these start packing, core funds follow. In Spain right now, the core funds are currently quite active, with transactions completed at sub-3 percent cap rates – record lows for the country. Are the distressed funds leaving the country, then? Definitely not. If anything, they are accelerating their activity

AEW announces that it has completed the acquisition of a high street retail asset in downtown Madrid on behalf of the Europe City Retail Fund for c.€50 million, marking the Fund’s second acquisition in the Spanish market. 

The business of US financial services group Blackstone would, at first glance, appear to be pretty simple: it buys up companies and assets that are in difficulties, in search of the biggest capital gain in the shortest time possible. 

UBS Asset Management's Real Estate & Private Markets business has acquired the retail gallery part of Las Rosas Shopping Centre in the San Blas district of Madrid, on behalf of a client for €57 million. The vendor, Hispania Retail Properties, a partnership owned by GreenOak Real Estate amongst others, acquired this center as part of a portfolio deal in 2014.

Following Santander’s rescue of Banco Popular, its JV deal with Blackstone to tackle €30bn of distressed real estate assets could prove a success story for both the bank and the private equity real estate giant.

Blackstone has bought a majority stake in a €30bn real estate portfolio owned by troubled Spanish lender Banco Popular. The announcement was made on the same day that EU regulators approved a rescue takeover of the bank by Santander.

Redevco Iberian Ventures, the joint venture between pan-European retail real estate investment management company Redevco and funds managed by global alternative asset manager Ares Management, has acquired Mercado San Miguel, the renowned covered gastronomic market in Madrid for €70 million. The seller is a consortium of private Spanish investors.