Swiss real estate investment boutique BlueRock Group is making good on its stated intentions last year to shift its focus to the German residential market from Denmark and home market Switzerland. It has teamed up with BGO Strategic Capital Partners from London to invest over €200m in the Berlin multi-family residential housing market in Berlin.
BGO SCP is the multi-manager platform of global real estate manager BentallGreenOak, which has invested with more than 130 managers across 280 fund investments around the world. BlueRock had already started accumulating a portfolio of 11 residential assets within Berlin's city ring over the last year. The partnership with BGO will see this seed portfolio being re-capitalised along with fresh capital, with the fund buying further similar assets to target an investment volume of €200m.
According to Cherine Aboulzelof, head of Europe at BGO SCP, "The fundamentals of the Berlin residential market continue to be strong and this transaction gives our investors exposure to one of the most liquid European residential market. We aim to invest with managers with local sourcing and asset management expertise and support their growth plans: we are delighted to partner with the BlueRock Group in an already seeded and growing portfolio, as they have demonstrated on-the-ground sourcing, planning, and asset management expertise."
BGO SCP was founded in 2002 and invests across the full suite of multi-manager investment strategies, including primary commitments to funds, traditional and GP-led secondary transactions, recapitalizations and co-investments into direct assets. Investments are made through its BGO Secondaries and BGO CoInvestment fund series (closed-end) and custom separately managed accounts.
BlueRock manages a portfolio of centrally-located residential and office properties in A- and B-cities valued at over €900m. Since starting up in 2011, the company has transacted more than €1.5bn of deals, says CEO Ronny Pifko.
