عالمی ریئل اسٹیٹ خبریں

Madrid | ReNews International Desk News
New investment funds and institutional investors are playing an increasingly prominent role in Spain’s property market, with several major transactions involving rental and affordable housing recorded during 2026, even as overall home sales show signs of slowing.
According to property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, investment in rental housing surged 376% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, reaching €2.934 billion in transactions involving large landlords and investment funds. The investment volume was already significantly higher than the total recorded during the whole of 2025.
The largest transaction so far this year involved Fidere, a real estate investment group specialising in public and rental housing. Canadian investment giant Brookfield acquired Fidere from Blackstone for approximately €1.05 billion, gaining a portfolio of 47 buildings containing more than 5,000 rental homes.
In another major transaction, Azora agreed in May to acquire about 1,200 rental homes in the Barcelona metropolitan area from Patrizia for more than €350 million. Patrizia had acquired the properties from BeCorp in 2022 for around €600 million.
Other investors are committing capital to housing projects before construction is completed. Barings is set to acquire 305 affordable homes in Los Cerros, Vicálvaro, for more than €70 million, with completion expected in 2029. It is also acquiring 188 homes in Valdebebas for more than €56 million.
Public land is also becoming part of institutional housing strategies. Spanish regional governments and municipalities have granted long-term concessions, in some cases lasting 45 to 75 years, to companies involved in affordable and social housing.
Culmia, controlled by US investment firm Oaktree, has been involved in Madrid’s Plan Vive social-housing programme, while German asset manager DWS and Bavarian firm MEAG have also acquired interests in portfolios containing thousands of affordable rental homes.
Meanwhile, Spain’s wider housing market is showing mixed signals. Home transactions declined 3.51% year-on-year through May 2026, reaching around 286,000 deals. BBVA Research forecasts a 7.3% decline in transactions for 2026, followed by a modest 0.6% recovery in 2027.
The slowdown in transactions contrasts sharply with rising institutional investment, highlighting the difference between the number of homes changing hands and the value of large portfolio acquisitions.
Market analysts also expect house-price growth to moderate. Oxford Economics forecasts around 5% growth in 2027, compared with double-digit growth in 2025, although the slowdown could prove temporary.
A major challenge remains the lack of transparency over residential property ownership. Spain’s cadastral data anonymises ownership information, making it difficult to establish precisely how many homes are controlled by large landlords and investment companies or how ownership is changing in real time.
The General Council of Notaries reported that legal entities accounted for 10% of residential transactions in 2025, but available data still does not provide a complete picture of corporate housing ownership across Spain.

Hong Kong’s luxury residential market recorded higher prices and a sharp increase in ultra-luxury transactions in the first nine months of 2026, with mainland Chinese buyers continuing to support demand, according to property consultancy CBRE.

Luxury home prices rose 5.3% year to date and stood 11.3% above the market trough recorded in March 2025. CBRE said the market remained resilient despite greater volatility and uncertainty over interest rates. Activity in the top end of the market accelerated. There were 197 transactions involving properties priced above HK$100 million between January and September, a 109.6% increase from the same period last year. The value of those deals rose 54.9% year on year to HK$28.2 billion.

Mainland Chinese buyers remained a major presence in Q3, accounting for 72% of luxury residential transactions in the primary market and 68% in the secondary market. CBRE said sustained mainland demand and the limited supply of prime residential properties continued to support prices.

Eddie Kwok, the firm’s executive director of valuation and advisory services in Hong Kong, said the luxury market had held up despite interest-rate uncertainty and tighter capital controls. Kwok added that high-net-worth buyers, particularly those from mainland China, continued to drive activity in the ultra-luxury segment, while restricted new supply helped underpin values in prime locations.

Saudi Arabia’s real estate market is drawing investment amid global geopolitical and economic uncertainty, supported by strong domestic demand and efforts to increase housing supply. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing said more than 15,000 residential plots were made available through the Sakani platform between January and the end of October 2026, alongside projects launched by private developers.

Developer Arada has entered the Saudi market through a partnership with local company XTOPIA, backed by a SAR 50 billion ($13.3 billion) portfolio of land and development opportunities. Their first project is a SAR 14 billion residential development in Riyadh’s Al Rimal district. Separately, Riyadh Region Municipality, the ministry and the National Center for Privatization & PPP have opened the expression-of-interest, prequalification and proposal stages for a joint investment project involving municipal land in northern Riyadh. The 50-year private-sector partnership is the municipality’s first under this model.

More land could help ease price pressures over the medium term if plot locations and sizes match demand. It may also generate work for developers, contractors, engineering firms and building-material suppliers, while supporting homeownership and urban growth beyond major cities.

Real estate developer Ahmed Omar Basoudan told that increasing supply alone would not resolve the market’s challenges. Housing must also be affordable, appropriately located and well serviced, with infrastructure and construction costs kept under control. He said the latest land releases and private projects reflected continued efforts to balance supply and demand as the Kingdom’s population and cities grew.