Tishman Speyer has joined forces with Lehman Brothers to buy Archstone-Smith Trust, the second largest US apartment owner, for $22bn. Daily Telegraph. Financial Times
The purchase is one of the largest privatisations of a REIT and comes amid concerns about a sustained downturn in the US housing market. Rental apartments tend to perform well when the housing market cools.
Archstone owns 86,000 units in 344 complexes, which are concentrated in upmarket neighbourhoods in US cities.
It says it has about $4.4bn of development in the pipeline.
Last year it bought German apartment owner DeWAG for $650m.