Spain reported the two largest transactions this week, with local real estate investment trusts (REIT) Castellana and Metrovacesa each clinching major sales.
Local REIT Castellana divested a 175,000sqm retail park portfolio comprising nine assets to Ares Real Estate for €279m, while Metrovacesa agreed the turnkey development and sale of two office buildings in Madrid to property firm Atrea.
Meanwhile, in the UK, British Land struck a £150m (€173m) deal to acquire Life Science REIT through a cash-and-share takeover.
The platform, which owns five core assets located in the “Golden Triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge, was put up for sale in late 2025 following a strategic review.
British Land’s offer represents a 21% premium to the closing price of 35.4 pence per Life Science REIT share on the day prior to the announcement and a 26% discount to the unaudited EPRA Net Tangible Assets value at year-end 2025.
British Land said the deal would allow it to significantly strengthen its science and technology portfolio, which it has identified as having “attractive market fundamentals” and expects to be “a key driver for future earnings and valuation growth within the campus portfolio”.
“British Land has seen strong leasing momentum from science and technology occupiers, having doubled the number of innovation occupiers in its portfolio since 2022 through the development and delivery of its science and technology-focused campuses,” the company said in a statement.
In the recently completed loan section, Apollo provided a €900m senior secured refinancing for a pan-European logistics and industrial portfolio owned by a joint venture between Cerberus Capital Management and Arrow Capital Partners. The investment, split across three separate senior loan facilities, will primarily refinance existing debt at the Strategic Industrial Real Estate platform.
In the fund section, financial services firm Alantra announced the launch of Alteralia Real Estate Debt Fund II (RED II), its second European real estate debt fund, targeting €200m.
| Recently completed deals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Buyer | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Key facts |
| retail park portfolio | retail | Spain | Ares Real Estate | Castellana | 174,305m2 | €279 | The nine-property strong portfolio includes Parque Principado in Asturias. |
| Oria Innovation Campus | office | Madrid | Atrea Real Estate | Metrovacesa | 48,000m2 | €200 | Metrovacesa agreed the turnkey deal to build and sell two large office buildings in Madrid. |
| industrial portfolio | logistics | Finland | Stendörren | NA | 63,000m2 | €123 (SEK1,300) | The portfolio is fully leased and the average remaining lease period is just over three years. |
| 13-asset portfolio | mixed | Sweden | Episurf | KlaraBo | 57,250m2 | €85 | The portfolio comprises 69% residential and 31% commercial. |
| London Barratt Redrow BTR scheme | living | London | Connected Living London (CLL) joint venture with Places for London | Barratt Redrow | 195 homes | £68 (€79) | The development will be delivered by Barratt Redrow under a forward-funded arrangement. |
| six industrial and logistics units | logistics | London | M7, Oxford Properties, AustralianSuper | NA | 175,000sqft | £60 (€68.8) | The asset is anchored by a self-contained 68,000sqft warehouse occupied by CPI TMD Technologies. |
| KarlsOffice at Reinsburgstrasse 36 | office | Stuttgart | THI Investments | Hines | NA | €60 | Hines has been an active investor in the Stuttgart real estate market, with other holdings including Caleido, Kronprinzbau, and Karlshöhe. |
| Kilcarbery Sq | living | Dublin | N&W Capital | TPG Angelo Gordon, Carysfort Capital | 115 apartments | €50 | The apartments form part of the wider Kilcarbery Grange development of more than 1,000 new homes near Clondalkin. |
| Equilibrium 2 | office | Bucharest, Romania | Magyar Posta Takarék Real Estate Investment Fund | Skanska | 20,000m2 | €37 | The buyer already owned Equilibrium 1. |
| logistics centre | logistics | Sarstedt, Germany | Clarion Partners Europe fund | Barings | 29,000m2 | €35 | The asset is fully let to a 3PL logistics provider. |
| two sites | logistics | Wimbledon and Bury St Edmunds, UK | Fiera Real Estate and the Universities Superannuation Scheme | NA | 272,000sqft | NA | The owner is to build the sites targeting a combined gross development value exceeding £110m (€126.8m). |
| hotel development project | hotel | Como, Italy | RoundShield | NA | 40 hectares | NA | The new owner will create a world-class 5-star luxury resort which will be managed and branded by Corinthia Hotels. |
| last-mile urban industrial asset | logistics | Munich | AEW and Trammell Crow | NA | 16,750m2 | NA | The ULLIS Park Munich South project in Taufkirchen is expected to be completed and ready for tenant occupation by late 2026. |
| industrial facility | logistics | Wasserburg, Germany | WP Carey | RKW | 235,000sqft | NA | The 20-year sale and leaseback is with plastic film manufacturer RKW. |
| logistics centre | logistics | Bucharest, Romania | Garbe Industrial and Fortress Real Estate Investments | NA | 11ha plot | NA | The project represents Garber Industrial’s first development in the Romanian market. |
| a prelet laboratory and R&D campus | life science | Warstein, Germany | Unnamed ”large US investor” | BC Partners Real Estate | NA | NA | The transaction is valued in the “high-double digit millions”. |
| PBSA assets | living | France, Spain and Italy | Ardian, Rockfield | Legendre Immobilier, Keystone Investments and Mediterranea Immobiliare | 1,500beds | NA | The buyers signed the forward acquisition of a new 427 bed project in Milan, the forward acquisition of a 327-bed project in Bordeaux and acquired a 750-bed standing asset known as Aparto Pallars in Barcelona. |
| Alma Place | living | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Curation Capital | NA | 393 beds | NA | The acquisition represents the second asset secured within the partners’ second joint venture. |
| data centre | data centre | Munich | Penta Infra | NA | 20MW | NA | The asset will be operational in 2028. |
| Assets on the market | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Broker | Key facts |
| Hamburg Two Towers | office | Hamburg | Patrizia | 20,000m2 | €90 | NA | The asset is let on a long term basis to Commerzbank. |
| Metrocentre mall | retail | Gateshead, UK | Metrocentre Partnership | 190,000m2 | NA | NA | Advisors are pitching for the sales mandate. |
| pub portfolio | alternative | UK | Stonegate | 22pubs | NA | Savills | The assets are available individually or as a package. |
| Frascati shopping centre | retail | Dublin | Invesco | 220,000sqft | NA | C&W | Invesco purchased the mall in 2015 from the Roche family for €68m in what was its first investment in Ireland. |
| Recently completed loans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lender(s) | Borrower(s) | Asset(s) | Loan Size (mln) | Key facts |
| Apollo | Cerberus and Arrow Capital Partners | Pan-European Logistics and Industrial Portfolio | €900 | The senior secured financing, split among three separate facilities, will primarily refinance existing debt of the Strategic Industrial Real Estate platform. |
| HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander | The Hill Group | Entire portfolio | £300 (€345) | The facility supports the delivery of the Group’s five-year business plan up to 2030. |
| Song | Hamberley Care Homes | 11 of Hamberley’s freehold care homes | £210 (€242) | The facility refinances existing debt and provides Hamberley with long-term capital to fund further development. |
| Intesa Sanpaolo | Eurocommercial Properties | Carosello mall in Carugate, Italy | €200 | The loan refinances existing debt. |
| Canada Life AM | Cortland | Colliers Yard in Salford, Manchester | £129 (€149) | The fixed-rate loan will be used to refinance Cortland’s existing debt facility secured against Cortland at Colliers Yard in Salford, Manchester, comprising 559 apartments. |
| Just Group | Arada | Clarendon Works in Watford, the Senna Building in Shoreditch and the Laundry Building in Hackney | £111 (€128) | The four-year amortising loan supports the developer’s growth plans. |
| Manova Partners, Vestas IM | Unnamed international lender | portfolio comprising two Swedish logistics properties | SEK620 (€59) | The logistics facilities are located in Jönköping and Norrköping. |
| Alpha Bank | Castello Sgr | Via Cavour asset in Rome and Milanofiori property in Milan | €50 | The loan will finance the purchase of the asset in Milan as well as the repositioning of the Rome property. |
| Fiera Real Estate Debt Strategies | SIGNAL and W.RE | 10 Lime Street in London | £41 (€47) | Fiera’s facility will part-finance the acquisition and comprehensive refurbishment of the building. |
| Leumi UK | Praxis and Veld Capital | South East office portfolio | £39 (€45) | The facility will be used to refinance assets in commuter towns around the M25. |
| BNP Paribas Bank Polska | Panattoni | Panattoni Park Szczecin Trzebusz II | €42 | The loan is for the construction of two warehouses as part of the Panattoni Park Szczecin Trzebusz II complex. |
| New mandates/JVs and funds on the market | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm | Fund/mandate/JV | Strategy | Details |
| CBRE IM, ABP | Dutch residential venture | Developing residential assets in the Netherlands | Dutch pension fund ABP has made a €550m follow-on commitment to the JV. |
| Kadens Capital, Townsend Group | Investing across Europe in real estate and operating platforms. | Focused on real estate assets, secondaries, and investments in operating platforms. | TRECS IV, Townsend’s flagship Secondaries and GP Capital Solutions fund, has committed €75m to the strategy. |
| Northtree Investment Management | Northtree Real Estate Partners II | Targeting value-add and opportunistic real estate investments in the UK. | Northtree Investment Management has raised £75m (€86.4m) for its latest fund, which is seeking a total of £300m of equity. |
| Alantra | Alteralia Real Estate Debt Fund II | Financing high-quality European real estate assets with a conservative approach focused on capital preservation | The fund has a target size of €200m, following a first closing. |
