I have noticed an increase in threads asking questions about real estate in non-US countries, whether they be Canada or various places in Europe and I thought it would be interesting to crowdsource a list of the best, brightest, biggest, or most innovative firms world-wide. Most of us - especially the old heads - are US-based, so it would also be good to build a resource for those who aren't.
Everyone in America knows Hines, Blackstone, and CBRE. Which companies are worthy of mention in other countries?
Savills, Brookfield
Canada, for record keeping purposes
Brookfield - yes, Canada. Savills’ HQ is in London
Building on Brookfield for Canada...
Private:
- KingSett Capital
- Slate Asset Management
- Dream
- Greybrook
- Tricon
- Crestpoint
- Fiera
- Starlight
- Hazelview
- Great Gulf
- Concord
- Daniels Corporation
- Mattamy Homes
- Tridel
- Broccolini
Public:
- RioCan
- Allied Properties
- First Capital
- Choice Properties
- SmartCentres
- CAPREIT
Pension Fund/Institutional:
- Oxford Properties
- Cadillac Fairview
- CPPIB
- Ivanhoe Cambridge
- PSP Investments
- AIMCo
- bcIMC (QuadReal)
- HOOPP
- IMCO
All the brokerages, including Knight Frank (London/Europe). Link REIT (HK), Gecina (France), Canadian Apartment Properties REIT
One of my professors at Georgetown founded GLL, and they have large holdings in USA/Germany
Not a traditional answer but large pension funds will have in-house direct or JV global teams like CPPIB.
I second this comment, namely the Canadian pension funds with large CRE portfolios. Here are a few: CPPIB, Oxford (OMERS), Quadreal (BCI), AIMCO, OP Trust (OPSEU), Ivanhoe Cambridge (Caisse), Cadillac Fairview (OTPP), PSP Investments.
I'm sure I'm missing a few but those are the big names I know. They probably own all if not most of the marquee buildings in downtown areas and have operations globally. It is a personal goal to try and work for one of them one day.
I think you've got most of the pension funds, the only ones I might add are HOOPP and IMCO who both have over $10B AUM in RE. There's also BentallGreenOak and GWL Realty Advisors who are mostly 3rd party managers and have pension funds as clients.
There are a few postings on LinkedIn for these firms right now that you should check out - good luck man!
GLP from Singapore
In the Aussie market, your big players are the A-REITs, (Charter Hall, Goodman, Dexus)
Fund Management, Development, JV Mandates and Construction. They're doing the lot and smashing it out of the park
I though Australia was just one giant desert surrounded by saltwater crocodiles, 20 ft great white sharks, and the most amount of species of venomous snakes and spiders that have ever existed. Maybe having roaches in NYC isn't as bad I think?
Caydon Property, not real big but a notable Australian based company developing projects in the US.
Some of Europe's main players. I'm sure many are missing, but it's a start:
UK Aberdeen British Land Grosvenor Landsec M&G Schroders
France Amundi Altarea Cogedim Aviva BNP Reim Bouygues Immobilier Covivio EDF Invest Gecina Unibail-Rodamco
Germany AIK Aroundtown CommerzReal Corestate Deka Imobilien GLL MEAG KanAm Grund Patrizia Real I.S. Union Investment
Switzerland Credit Suisse Edmond de Rothschild REIM SwissLife UBP UBS
Not to troll too hard on Gecina, but a friend of mine, pointed out this jewel from their Wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecina
"As of 2010 Gecina is reducing its interest in some business lines such as warehouses because of their limited market growth potential."
Granted that quote is outdated, but still serves as a great laugh.
Also, Unibail-Romdaco acquired Westfield, so their U.S. operations are basically ran from the latter.
Fortunately it was only around 5% of the portfolio and pretty ordinary kit. Gecina was a bit of a mess back then with court cases against management.
Covivo (Previously FDR) also sold their logistics portfolio in a few tranches in 2014 - far poorer timed sale.
Other companies to note in Europe
Norway - Entra Sweden - Fabege, Balder, Castellum Germany - Vonovia, Deutsche Wohnen, LEG (all resi) Spain/France - Colonial Spain - Merlin Industrial/logistics - Segro, VGP, Panattoni
There is a lot of capital with pension funds in EMEA so funds like APG and AXA are big investors
Colonial - HQ in Barcelona with offices in Paris and Madrid. Impressive projects, really solid group.
Signa - Austrian Developer - really nice projects.
LendLease - Based in Australia
Metrovacesa - Solid homebuilder in Spain
Aedas - Homebuilder in Spain
Freo Group - Firm out of Germany that has a bunch of offices throughout Europe that has some really nice projects.
Ah, the Signa comment aged so well.
- Jk. Just an Austrian in finance having a laugh late at night :)
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are a category worth mentioning - QIC (Australia), GIC (Singapore), etc. are all global real estate players these days.
Don't forget the Middle Eastern ones like AIDA, Dubai World, and the others
Just avoid DAMAC - seppuku would be a more honorable option at this point.
It’s ADIA not AIDA.
In Asia a few good ones are Gaw Capital, PAG, Phoenix and GLP.
I know Thor is involved all over the place, especially in Mexico, but they also have a Europe division.
Whether anyone wants to be developing retail and hospitality in this day and age I leave to your personal preference.
please...
Here is the list from RCA's Q1 cross border tracker (meaning inbound/outbound to the US)
Buyers 1. Brookfield AM - Canada 2. Allianz - Germany 3. Bilgili Holding - Turkey 4. Korea Investment Holdings 5. Investcorp - Bahrain 6. BentallGreenOak - Canada 7. Tricon - Canada 8. Mapletree Investments - Singapore 9. Mapletree Industrial - Singapore 10. PSP Investments - Canada 11. Jamestown - Germany 12. GMF Capital - Switzerland 13. GIC - Singapore 14. WPT Industrial REIT - Canada 15. Partners Group - Switzerland 16. BVK - Germany 17. Munich Re - Germany 18. Ponte Gadea - Spain 19. Onni Group - Canada 20. QIA - Qatar
Sellers 1. GLP - China 2. CDPQ - Canada 3. Brookfield AM - Canada 4. ADIA - UAE 5. Investcorp - Bahrain 6. Starlight Investments - Canada 7. Sekisui House - Japan 8. CPPIB - Canada 9. OMERS - Canada 10. UBS - Switzerland 11. BentallGreenOak - Canada 12. Jamestown - Germany 13. Pure Multi-Family REIT - Canada 14. Wafra - Kuwait 15. Unizo Holdings - Japan 16. Profimex - Israel 17. Skanska AB - Sweden 18. AustrailianSuper - Australia 19. Cineworld - UK 20. Pensioenfonds ABP - Netherlands
this list shifts based on activity (a lot frankly), but clearly only big players get included.
It is interesting how often Germany, Canada, and Singapore appear but the UK only shows up once and it's Regal cinemas.
Canada makes total sense based on proximity and I know a lot of German firms invest in US real estate, but the utter lack of UK activity is odd to me.
According to the same RCA report, the UK was ranked 10th for investment into the US with 1.5 billion in volume in last 12 months. But I can't think of any dominate firms, frankly, I don't ever remembering a dominant RE firm from UK making US acquisitions (but I'm guessing it happens). I think of Merlin Entertainment and their theme park assets (Legolands, etc).
Japan is way down but lots of big players there, if you making a list, be sure to get all the Japanese firms like Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate, Mori Trust, Tokyu Land, Sumitomo and the rest.
Bruh. That's a lot of banana points. Hope all is well.
Fortress Investment Group. REPE..
Has huge businesses in Japan, Europe, and USA..
Here's a good list of top CRE firms in Canada: Kingsett Tricon Slate Hines Brookfield Oxford Properties CPPIB/PSP Allied Properties
I’d take Tricon off that list buddy, basically a $2b Ponzi scheme lmao
what makes you say that? I thought they had a good reputation, working a lot with Dream and Kilmer group
Pretty sure Tricon manages $10b+ and hires out of BB IB and M7 MBAs
Kennedy Wilson, publicly listed developer operating in the states and europe
Yeah, these guys have some nice properties in the UK and Spain.
Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim are two massive UAE based Middle East developers and owners
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