Bloomberg Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. is joining U.K. developer Delancey Real Estate Asset Management Ltd. and Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management NV to create a $2 billion home-rental business in London, with properties in the former Olympic athletes’ village and the Elephant & Castle district. The venture, which is subject to regulatory approval, will manage 4,000 homes, …

Bloomberg The battle for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. may be over, but the company’s chief executive officer says it’s just the beginning for lodging-industry mergers. “Clearly the Marriott-Starwood transaction has created a lot of chatter about further consolidation,” Starwood CEO Tom Mangas said on a conference call with analysts in which he and Marriott International Inc. CEO Arne …

Bloomberg U.K. house prices increased for a ninth month in March as rental investors rushed to purchase property before a tax increase, Nationwide Building Society said. The average price of a home rose 0.8 percent from February to 200,251 pounds ($287,280), the lender said in a statement on Monday. The annual rate of growth surged to 5.7 percent, the strongest …