TRD Global: Canada Pullback, Stephen Schwarzman in Hot Water

Real estate news from around the world this week spanned developments in residential and commercial markets. Persistent concerns over President Donald Trump’s tariffs are effecting interest in home deals from the United States’ neighbors to the north, and a finance giant took its lease-signing spree to Hong Kong.

Check out these and more international real estate stories that made headlines this week:

Canada goose

Trade and geopolitical tensions are driving Canadians away from the U.S. housing market, USA Today reported. In the first quarter, Canadians made up 34.7 percent of online home viewers, according to Realtor.com — still tops among foreign countries, but down six percentage points from a year earlier.

Canadians have led foreign purchases in five of the last ten years, including last year when it accounted for 13 percent of the category, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Waning Canadian interest could have a more acute impact on luxury properties and warm-weather metropolitan areas, places where our northern neighbors escape to during the coldest months.

London’s luxury hotel boom

In the next three years, 20 high-end hotels are expected to open in the United Kingdom capital, according to The Spaces. That means another 1,000 rooms of luxury for visitors.

This year, luxury hotel occupancy rates in the city average 82 percent, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

Stephen Schwarzman dumps cold water on neighbors’ accusations

Elsewhere in the U.K., Blackstone boss Stephen Schwarzman is drawing the ire of his neighbors, accused of plundering the underground water in Wiltshire to fill the lake on his estate, which can hold 9 million gallons. A spokesperson for Schwarzman denied the accusations, telling The Mail on Sunday that the massive lake was not being filled by a borehole, but instead by utilizing a “highly sophisticated water collection system” transporting rainfall into the lake.

Schwarzman does not seem to be endearing himself to his neighbors. He bought Conholt Park, a 17th-century manor house, in 2022 for approximately $85 million. He also has homes in New York, Water Mill and St. Tropez, among other locales.

Hong Kong lease resets office market

Quantitative trading firm Jane Street Capital signed a lease for 233,000 square feet at a Henderson Land Development site still being constructed in the city’s central business district, Bloomberg reported. The lease will start in 2028 and last five years; Jane Street will pay roughly $3.8 million per month.

The deal is believed to be the largest in Hong Kong’s central business district in decades, but Jane Street is no stranger to large leases. The company recently expanded its footprint at Brookfield’s 250 Vesey Street in Manhattan’s Battery Park City to nearly 1 million square feet, an expansion of roughly 400,000 square feet on top of 600,000 square feet Jane Street already occupied.