ING Groep NV agreed to buy Dutch real estate investment trust KFN for more than 600 million euros ($887 million Canadian) to gain 80 office buildings, including the world famous Weena Tower in Rotterdam.

The purchase gives Amsterdam-based ING Real Estate, the world’s largest property fund manager, control of a company with assets of about 1.6 billion euros across the Netherlands.  The seller, Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, will receive a 365 million euro stake in two ING property funds.

KFN’s properties have almost 600,000 square metres of space, are 94 per cent occupied and attracted interest from 14 companies, ING said. The company’s 10 biggest tenants include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vodafone Group PLC and the Dutch government and account for more than a quarter of rental income.  Looks like another positive move my ING.

In Bulgaria there are many signs of a country for sale. Its residential property, anyway. Everywhere you go, you see ads in English offering houses and apartments, existing and as-yet-unbuilt, for sale or rent at, by Toronto standards, bargain-basement prices. Less than $70,000 could put you in the market for a decent house on the outskirts of the capital, Sofia, or an apartment downtown. In a village “within easy driving distance” of the city, 70 grand might buy you two or even three places, though you might want to spend some of the money on a chauffeur.

The roads aren’t great and driving standards aren’t high. Property prices are usually quoted first in euros, then British pounds, then Bulgarian leva. Domestic buyers are not the prime target. The country, part of the European Union since last January, is hungry for foreign investment and with a little promotion and some hard work it just might get it.