Ex-Westgrund managers set up new German residential investor

A new company has just set up in Berlin, bringing a number of familiar faces back into the world of residential real estate investment. Velero Partners will focus on buying, managing and selling residential property across Germany for its own book, with the emphasis on small to mid-size portfolios.

The partners include Sascha Giest, formerly co-CEO of listed residential group Westgrund, which was recently taken over by Frankfurt peer Adler Real Estate. During his time at Westgrund, the firm’s portfolio rose to 20,000 from 5,000 flats and entered the SDAX German small-cap stock exchange index.

Thomas Lange was a colleague of Giest's at Westgrund, as head of transactions, and at Velero he will look after acquisitions and asset management. Frank Wildhirt, who will handle privatisations, has been doing a similar job on behalf of numerous clients over the last ten years, and has sold more than 7,500 apartments in that time.

According to Giest, "Our business model is really very simple. We buy residential portfolios which we can optimise and then raise their value. Whether we hold on to them or sell them off will depend on the market environment and the investment horizons of our investors. We'll be looking at small to mid-sized portfolios, since there's less buyer competition in that segment, which is reflected in price levels. But we're not afraid to pick up bigger or more difficult portfolios either."

Separately, the Zug, Switzerland-based Peakside Capital Advisors has also created a focused German residential property joint venture with GRP Capital. GRP was set up in June by two ex-managers of Patrizia Immobilien, Peter Willisch and Matthias Franke. The joint venture will advise national and international investors and family officea on investing in defensive, higher-yielding assets.

Peakside partner Boris Schran said the joint venture’s creation allowed the company to continue diversifying and extending its product range to incorporate more defensive real estate investments.