Institutions still control less than 2% of the $3.1-trillion single-family rental sector in the US. That appears likely to change in the near term.

The merger of Invitation Homes and Starwood Waypoint "creates the leading single-family rental company in the United States," says Fred Tuomi, who will be CEO of the combined company.

Rents remained basically flat during Q2 in six of the 10 biggest US office markets, including Manhattan, says Colliers International.

The deal for Banco Popular's real estate portfolio occurs as Spain experiences some of the strongest economic growth among EU member countries.

The quarterly decline in the NFI-OE compares favorably to other indices' performance in Q2, while the NCREIF Property Index broke an eight-quarter downward trend.

“Multiple factors came into play to drive commercial mortgage investment returns in the second quarter,” says John B. Levy, co-creator of the Giliberto-Levy index.

Jeff Manno helped build Greystar's UK rental housing business to assets under management of £3.5 billion and a development pipeline of £1.5 billion.

“Infrastructure is a strategic component of an allocation to real assets, and we expect client demand for it will continue to increase,” says CBRE Global Investors' Ritson Ferguson.