The Properties High Interest Rates Can’t Touch
高利率无法触及的房地产

Cartier’s Swiss owner, Compagnie Financière Richemont CFR 5.31%increase; green up pointing triangle, recently bought a property on London’s Bond Street at a rock-bottom 2.2% rent yield. Similar to the way bonds work, the lower the rent yield, the richer the price paid. The Bank of England’s base rate is around double this level. Most investors these days wouldn’t buy real estate that generates less income than the cost of debt that might be used to purchase it.
卡地亚的瑞士所有者，Compagnie Financière RichemontCFR5.31%，最近以极低的 2.2%租金收益率在伦敦邦德街购买了一处物业。类似于债券的运作方式，租金收益率越低，支付的价格就越高。英格兰银行的基准利率大约是这个水平的两倍。如今，大多数投资者不会购买产生的收入低于可能用于购买的债务成本的房地产。

Last month, Blackstone sold a luxury store on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone to Gucci owner Kering for a similarly eye-catching price. The building was part of a portfolio of 14 properties that Blackstone bought in 2021 for 1.1 billion euros, equivalent to roughly $1.2 billion. Kering coughed up €1.3 billion, or about $1.4 billion, for the Via Montenapoleone building alone, equivalent to a 2.5% rent yield.
上个月，黑石集团以同样惊人的价格将米兰蒙特纳波莱奥内街的一家奢侈品店出售给古驰母公司开云集团。这座建筑物是黑石在 2021 年以 11 亿欧元购买的 14 处房产组合中的一部分，大约相当于 12 亿美元。开云集团仅为蒙特纳波莱奥内街的建筑物支付了 13 亿欧元，约合 14 亿美元，相当于 2.5%的租金收益率。

The private-equity firm is understandably eager to do more deals like this, and has since bought another luxury store in London. It is a surprising focus for Blackstone, which for years steered clear of retail property.
这家私募股权公司理所当然地渴望做更多类似这样的交易，并已经在伦敦购买了另一家奢侈品商店。对于多年来一直避开零售物业的黑石集团来说，这是一个令人惊讶的关注点。

Luxury rents are resilient, but they aren’t rising fast enough to justify such hefty price tags for the buildings. Last year, rents increased 3% on Rodeo Drive and were flat on Upper Fifth Avenue, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield.
豪华租金具有弹性，但并未以足够快的速度上涨，以证明这些建筑物的高昂价格标签。根据高诗威地产与韦克菲尔德（Cushman & Wakefield）的数据，去年，Rodeo Drive 的租金增长了 3％，而第五大道上部的租金保持不变。

What luxury retail properties do offer is scarcity. London’s Bond Street has 150 individual buildings, according to real-estate consulting firm CBRE. But because luxury brands are fussy about where they will open a flagship store, only around two-thirds of the street is considered posh enough, limiting their options.
奢侈品零售物业所提供的是稀缺性。根据房地产咨询公司 CBRE 的数据，伦敦邦德街拥有 150 栋独立建筑。但由于奢侈品牌对于开设旗舰店的地点很挑剔，只有大约三分之二的街道被认为足够豪华，从而限制了他们的选择。

Supply is even tighter on New York’s Fifth Avenue, where just four or five blocks of the six-mile avenue are ritzy enough to lure the world’s most expensive brands. The luxury shopping district of Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles has fewer than 50 individual buildings. 
纽约第五大道的供应甚至更为紧张，仅有六英里长的大道中的四到五个街区足够豪华，吸引了全球最昂贵的品牌。洛杉矶的奢侈购物区罗迪欧大道拥有不到 50 栋独立建筑。

This creates intense competition for both space and ownership. The world’s biggest luxury company, LVMH MC -0.36%decrease; red down pointing triangle, has more than 70 brands that need a foothold on prominent shopping streets. Increasingly, LVMH’s answer is to buy the best locations. The Paris-listed company owns at least six properties on Rodeo Drive and six on London’s Bond Street.
这为空间和所有权带来了激烈的竞争。全球最大的奢侈品公司路威酩轩（LVMH）拥有 70 多个品牌，这些品牌需要在知名购物街上站稳脚跟。越来越多地，路威酩轩的解决方案是购买最佳位置。这家在巴黎上市的公司至少拥有六处位于罗迪欧大道的物业和六处位于伦敦邦德街的物业。

Luxury brands see their flagship stores as marketing tools. Counterintuitively, e-commerce has made its physical locations more important. Labels including Christian Dior have opened restaurants and minimuseums in their boutiques to give shoppers an experience they can’t find online.
奢侈品牌将旗舰店视为营销工具。出人意料的是，电子商务使得实体店更加重要。包括迪奥在内的品牌已在精品店内开设餐厅和微型博物馆，为顾客提供线上无法体验的购物体验。

When they are investing this much money in refurbishments, it makes more sense to own than to rent. Luxury brands have spent more than $9 billion buying boutiques since the start of 2023, according to a Bernstein analysis, and they control increasingly larger tracts of major shopping districts. Back in 2009, brands owned 15% of the buildings on London’s Bond Street, says Phil Cann, an executive director at CBRE. Today, their share has jumped to 30%.
当他们在翻新上投资这么多资金时，拥有而非租赁更有意义。根据伯恩斯坦的分析，自 2023 年初以来，奢侈品牌已经花费超过 90 亿美元购买精品店，他们控制着日益扩大的主要购物区。CBRE 的执行董事菲尔·坎恩表示，早在 2009 年，品牌就拥有伦敦邦德街 15%的建筑物。如今，他们的份额已经增至 30%。

Luxury labels also need to avoid being kicked out of a property by a rival-turned-landlord, which is happening more often. British handbag maker Asprey was given its marching orders by Hermès on London’s Bond Street. The French brand bought the building that Asprey occupied since the 1840s and wants to convert it into an Hermès flagship. Rolex recently bought a store that is rented out to Patek Philippe, although its competitor doesn’t need to move out any time soon as there are still several years left on the lease. 
奢侈品牌也需要避免被转型为房东的竞争对手踢出物业，这种情况越来越常见。英国手袋制造商 Asprey 在伦敦邦德街被爱马仕赶走。这家法国品牌购买了 Asprey 自 19 世纪 40 年代以来占据的建筑，并计划将其改建为爱马仕旗舰店。劳力士最近购买了一家租给百达翡丽的商店，尽管其竞争对手暂时不需要搬出，因为租约还有几年的期限。

Most luxury stores are still in the hands of sovereign-wealth funds or rich families who might have owned the buildings for decades. Given the enticing prices that brands are willing to pay despite high interest rates, more are considering cashing out. 
大多数奢侈品商店仍然掌握在主权财富基金或可能已经拥有建筑物数十年的富裕家族手中。鉴于品牌愿意支付诱人的价格，尽管利率较高，更多人正在考虑套现。

Landlords from Hong Kong, who began parking their cash in luxury stores around 2010, are among those selling up. New York real-estate investor Wharton Properties also sold two Fifth Avenue buildings to Kering and Prada this year at very high prices that were equivalent to 2% rent yields. Wharton is experiencing some distress in other parts of its portfolio, so it might have needed to raise funds.
自 2010 年左右开始将现金投入奢侈品店的香港房东们也在抛售资产。纽约房地产投资者沃顿地产公司今年以非常高的价格将第五大道的两栋建筑物卖给了开云集团和普拉达，相当于 2%的租金收益率。沃顿在其投资组合的其他部分遇到了一些困境，因此可能需要筹集资金。

Luxury brands made huge amounts of money during the pandemic. Richemont currently has more than €7 billion of net cash sitting on its balance sheet. Merger and acquisition activity has been quiet, so real estate might be the next-best thing to pour their riches into. 
奢侈品牌在疫情期间赚取了大量资金。目前，Richemont 在其资产负债表上拥有超过 €7 十亿的净现金。并购活动一直比较低调，因此房地产可能是他们将财富投入的下一个最佳选择。

Property deals on the world’s most expensive streets will continue to operate in their own twilight zone, no matter what central bankers do next.
世界上最昂贵街道的房地产交易将继续在其独特的黄昏区运作，无论中央银行家接下来采取何种行动。

Write to Carol Ryan at carol.ryan@wsj.com
请写信给 Carol Ryan，邮箱地址为 carol.ryan@wsj.com。