Blackstone Targets Housing Sale in Another European Country

It seems that Blackstone’s thirst won’t be quenched until it’s marketing housing in every European nation.

The alternative asset manager tapped Knight Frank to search for a buyer for a 60-unit housing component of a recently acquired mixed-use complex, Bloomberg reported. The luxury units are within the Centre d’Affaires Paris Trocadéro in the French capital’s 16th district.

Blackstone bought the property from German fund Union Investment for €700 million ($804 million). With a sale process expected to launch before the end of the year, Blackstone is hoping to recoup more than €100 million for the luxury apartments.

Last year, the luxury market in Paris experienced a major rebound, according to Barnes, witnessing a 22 percent annual jump in transactions. That rebound could be mitigated due to political concerns in the country, though.

Blackstone and Knight Frank both declined to comment to the publication.

Acquiring the Centre d’Affaires Paris Trocadéro wasn’t Blackstone’s only major move in France last year. It also agreed to buy a portfolio of warehouses in the European country for $2.3 billion from Proudreed, a major private logistics firm in the country. The sites span nearly 25 million square feet.

In recent years, Blackstone has also acquired the Mandarin Oriental boutiques in France for $215 million and an 80 percent stake in a European logistics portfolio owned by Burstone, which included 10 assets in France.

But in recent months, Blackstone’s been looking to sell housing portfolios across the continent.

In January, the alternative asset manager retained Goldman Sachs and CBRE to advise on the sale of Leaf Living, a rental home business based in the United Kingdom. A sale is expected to come in above £1 billion ($1.3 billion), sources told Bloomberg.

A few months earlier, it was reported that Blackstone was exploring a sale of a Spanish rental housing portfolio for $1.4 billion, tapping JLL and Eastdil Secured to advise on a potential deal. The portfolio is managed by Fidere Patrimonio Socimi, a platform Blackstone first bought into in 2013.

— Holden Walter-Warner