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Morley, a UK property fund manager, has increased its European capability with three hires and one internal reshuffle. Andreas von Gossler joins as head of acquisitions for the European property fund. Previously he was a fund manager at the German real estate group Union Investment. Lorenzo Segre, comes from Italy’s Pirelli Real Estate, and will become a manager on the Morley European fund. Also joining is analyst Matthew Hills who comes from HDG Mansur Investment Services, a US property group that specialises in Islamic Shariah-compliant products. All three report to Julian Taylor, lead manager of the European fund.

Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp, the New York subsidiary of Hypo Real Estate Bank International, has hired Dana Valenti as director, origination, reporting directly to Samuel Kirschner, managing director, head of origination. Valenti joins Hypo from the strategic capital group at GE Real Estate, where she was responsible for originating large loans used in opportunity funds and Reits.

Aberdeen Property Investors has recruited a seven-strong property investment management team from Credit Suisse Asset Management, headed by the new head of property asset management in the UK, Glenn Newson. The new hires, announced at the beginning of March, coincide with plans to launch Aberdeen’s first UK property fund.

The Association of Real Estate Funds, the representative body for unlisted commercial real estate funds, announced on April 2 the continued expansion of its membership with the addition of four new funds.

Middle East thrives on new rules of the game

Deutsche Börse announced in May that it would launch an index covering real estate investment trusts.

Real estate derivatives market participants believe that new property index definitions and trade confirmation forms, published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association on May 4, will spur an increase in liquidity as investors become more familiar and confident in trading and legal risks are reduced.

Morley Fund Management is the latest European investor to move into the Chinese property market.

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So far 2007 has been an eventful period in the world of property derivatives as a second wave of banks push to enter the ever-growing market.

South Korea’s government plans to set up a real estate fund in September to finance construction of rental houses. The move aims to stabilize house prices, a government official says.

Unibail’s takeover of Rodamco has sparked off a round of merger speculation in the property sector.