DeWAG boosts German holdings with new residential deal

Stuttgart-based DeWAG Group recently teamed up with a European pension fund to buy a sizeable portfolio, consisting of 1,851 apartments and 72 commercial units. The seller was an unnamed German insurance group.

The portfolio has 120,000 sqm of lettable residential space and about 9,000 sqm in the commercial assets. The properties are described as “in good to very good residential locations, in the economically strong metropolitan regions of Rhine-Main (around Frankfurt and Wiesbaden), Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.” The building are mostly modern, but include a few historic buildings, and are said to be in very good technical condition.

DeWAG Management GmbH, as the company’s asset manager, is taking responsibility for managing the new holdings and initiating a programme of improved energy efficiency across the portfolio. DeWAG currently holds more than 14,500 residential properties throughout Germany, generally (REFIRE’s opinion) of a high standard and with a strong emphasis on attractive surroundings, with decent social and technical infrastructure, located in the larger cities.

In 2006 the company was bought by US REIT Archstone, which subsequently went through its own ownership changes. DeWAG today is still part-owned (16.46%) by Archstone, with the DeWAG properties all incorporated in one real estate fund, “The Archstone German Fund”, which now includes several European institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers among its shareholders.