Is Qatar playing Monopoly?

Does it seem like Qatar is playing the old game of Monopoly?

While its their prerogotive to buy up whatever they like, its just seem a bit odd that they are buying up property like hotcakes... Beware if a Train Station goes on sale....

Hope they don't pick up a "Go directly to Jail" card... do not pass begin.. do not collect QR200;-P

Land Securities Cashes in Early With Sale of Oxford Street Site

Bloomberg

Land Securities Group Plc sale of Park House, the biggest development on London’s Oxford Street in 40 years, reduces risk and generates profit years earlier than planned, the company and analysts said.

“It crystallizes a profit on the site with minimum risk and Land Securities is able to reinvest the proceeds in other profitable schemes,” Harm Meijer, a London-based analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co. who rates the stock “neutral,” said in a note to clients today. “It is attractive to Land Securities shareholders for a number of reasons.”

Barwa, 45 percent-owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, will pay 250 million pounds ($367.4 million) plus an additional profit-share sum of as much as 50 million pounds for Park House, Land Securities said today in a statement.

The deal means that Barwa rather than Land Securities pays for construction and runs any risk associated with completing and leasing out Park House, Oxford Street’s biggest development in 40 years. The U.K. company, which decided to proceed with the project before securing any tenants, will act as development manager responsible for its delivery.

“This sale enables us to realize the majority of our profit ahead of schedule, with significantly reduced risk and with no capital employed,” Robert Noel, managing director of Land Securities’ London portfolio, said in the statement.

Land Securities, Britain’s biggest real estate investment trust, announced in January that work on the development in Europe’s busiest shopping district would start in May and be completed in 2012. The company predicted rising rents because of a lack of new properties becoming available over the next two years.

‘Good Price’

Park House will include 165,000 square feet (15,000 square meters) of office space, 90,000 square feet of shops and 39 residential units, Land Securities said. The sale price was based on the company’s estimates that the office space will be leased at 90 pounds a square foot and the retail space at 500 pounds a square foot, said London-based Credit Suisse AG analyst Steve Bramley-Jackson, who has a “neutral” rating on the stock.

“I suspect they have extracted a very good price,” Bramley-Jackson said. “They are selling it at a point when there is very strong demand.”

Land Securities was down 4.5 pence, or 0.7 percent, at 624 pence at 12:45 a.m. in London trading. The stock has advanced 34 percent in the last 12 months, giving the company a market value of 4.75 billion pounds.

Qatar Powerhouse

Barwa approached Land Securities earlier this year about buying Park House, Land Securities spokesman Donal McCabe said today.

Qatari funds are likely to be the “powerhouse” of global real estate investment this year, property adviser Jones Lang LaSalle said in a report three days ago. Qatar Holdings LLC, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, last month bought Harrods, London’s best-known store, and last year became the largest investor in Songbird Estates Plc, the majority owner of the Canary Wharf development in the U.K. capital’s Docklands area.

In 2008 Barwa and other Qatari investors bought 80 percent of the Shard, an 80-story tower being built near London’s river Thames. Three days ago they bought out the building’s only office tenant in anticipation that rents will almost double from the agreed rate when the skyscraper is completed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=auuWi8oSVpdg