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Monte Koch is the new global head of real estate investment banking at Deutsche Bank. The former mergers and acquisitions head replaces Devin Murphy, who is leaving to pursue other interests, although he will continue to act as an adviser to the real estate business.

After almost a five-month hiatus the European commercial mortgage-backed securities market is showing signs of life, with a handful of deals being marketed quietly. However, market participants are by no means confident that these deals will herald the market’s resurrection. Dealers have dramatically revised their expectations for 2007 volumes. Instead of the projected €100 million-worth of CMBS, a mere €50 million is hoped for by year-end.

Big changes are coming to the UK real estate market as the government seeks to pass the planning reform bill which is aimed, in part, at streamlining and improving the planning process. If passed, the bill will introduce a single consents regime for big infrastructure projects, create an independent infrastructure planning commission and institute further initiatives to improve the town and country planning system. Now in its first reading in the House of Commons, the proposed legislation could bring the most significant changes to planning in the UK since the end of the Second World War.

A Chinese real estate investment trust market appears to have moved a step closer following comments by the general manager of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe), a landmark building in the City of London, has been sold to German high-net-worth and private clients through IVG Immobilien’s closed-end fund, EuroSelect 14.

The European residential mortgage-backed securitization market has all but disappeared, and no one knows what the landscape will look like when investors and issuers return in January.

Vladimir Pantyushin, chief economist of Renaissance Capital, is joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Russia & CIS, as national director, head of economic and strategic research group.

The advent of trades on the Italian and Swiss Investment Property Databank indices has furthered the development of the property derivatives market. This opening up of the market into new jurisdictions is expected to continue, with market experts pointing to the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Ireland as likely candidates for the next IPD-based trades.

The Chinese property market is booming, even when the pace of land release is restricted. But concerns about policy and that some developers’ stocks might be overvalued have injected some caution into the market. Chris Wright reports.

Shaun Stevens, senior product specialist, Fortis Investments

London-based Rutley Capital Management, the real estate private equity arm of Knight Frank, is preparing a fund focused on east Africa. The Rutley East Africa fund will aim to raise $200 million to invest in city-centre properties in the capital cities of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius and South Africa. The fund will formally launch by the end of this year.