Sweden's Heimstaden, France's AEW Ciloger make German debut
Two prominent European players recently entered the German market for the first time – Sweden's Heimstaden and French OPCI Franceurope Immo, the former into the residential market and the latter with a refurbished office development.
Listed Swedish group Heimstaden teamed up with Berlin investment group Skjerven Group to buy a €66m residential property portfolio from a Berlin family office, in what the Swedes said was the first transaction in along-term investment drive into Germany. The ten residential properties in Berlin-Spandau in the west of the city (Päwesiner Weg) comprise 484 residential units with a total of 27,831sqm of living space and 50 parking spaces.
Einar Skjerven, the Norwegian-born CEO of Skjerven Group, said: “We have been developing our extensive regional expertise and robust network for more than a decade, which means that we are ideally placed to support Heimstaden as it enters its first market outside Scandinavia…. At the same time, our own Scandinavian background can only benefit our cooperation with our new Scandinavian partners.”
Magnus Nordholm, deputy CEO of Heimstaden, said: “Real estate prices in Berlin are growing steadily, starting from a relatively low level. In combination with a very stable rental market, which hardly has any vacancies, this represents a very solid basis for profitable investments.”
Nordholm said German residential real estate markets continue to offer great potential, especially with the long-term investment strategy Heimstaden is pursuing. The Malmö-headquartered company currently owns, develops and manages 31,600 residential properties and other assets in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, valued at around SEK54.8bn (€5.27bn).
Meanwhile French group AEW Ciloger, a subsidiary of property investment manager AEW, has bought a 10,000 sqm six-storey office building in Dortmund on behalf of OPCI Franceurope Immo, a French property fund for private investors, marking its first investment in Germany.
The seller is Cording Real Estate Group, on behalf of LQG Landmark Partnership. Cording has fully let the property, which was comprehensively renovated and enlarged in 2017, to BIMA (Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben), the German state-owned property administrator, for 15 years.
Franceurope Immo is an OPCI for private clients (SPPICAV), with a diversified portfolio comprising both direct property investments (60-65%) and investments in financial instruments (30-35%).