Charles Kingston
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La Francaise takes over German investment firm Veritas Group
French asset management group La Française is buying Frankfurt-based multi-asset manager Veritas Investment and Hamburg-based Veritas Institutional. more
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German B-cities to see big price rises, headed by Leipzig
Hefty price rises are expected in German B-cities such as Leipzig, Nüremberg, Wiesbaden, Münster and Hannover over the coming years, according to a survey carried out by market research institute IfaD among 1,380 registered participants at the... more
MEC METRO-ECE Centermanagement GmbH & Co. KG
Metro AG looking to offload struggling retail subsidiary Real
German listed retail group Metro AG is looking to again sell off its retail subsidiary Real, along with a sizeable property portfolio, as it retreats back to being a classical wholesaler. more
Bulwiengesa AG
Where can you still get a 5% yield in German real estate?
Where can you still get a 5% yield in German real estate? That’s the question being asked for the last four years in an annual study published and presented by market research group BulwienGesa and supported by lawyers Beiten Burkhardt and... more
HPBA GmbH
German off-market transactions higher than expected
A new study shows that the number of so-called ‘off-market’ real estate deals in Germany is considerably higher than previously assumed, with investors prepared to pay a premium to avoid the time and expense of structured sales processes... more
Deutsche Wohnen
Listed real estate index set to double on specialty sectors
It seems like only recently when Germany was a laggard in the European listed real estate sector, and we here at REFIRE have no difficulty remembering the plaintive wailing of the EPRA leadership at the slow pace of growth of... more
HSH Nordbank AG
Repositioning, adding value key to survival for retail investors
While the challenges facing investors in Germany’s retail real estate market remain real, market participants are adapting to the new environment, and developing new strategies to compete in a world of greater digitization and changing structures. more
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Omega teams up with dentists pension fund for daycare investments
The Cologne-based fund manager Omega Immobilien has launched a €50m daycare property fund with a pension fund for regional German dentists association, Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Nordrhein (VZN) as sole investor. more
Activum SG Capital
ActivumSG exits Instone Real Estate in sudden block sale
The Jersey-based real estate fund manager ActivumSG Capital Management sold its entire remaining stake in listed German residential developer Instone earlier this month. more
Aareal Bank AG
Aareal Bank buys Düsseldorfer Hyp, forecast boosted by €52m
We mentioned in last month’s issue of REFIRE that the Wiesbaden-based real estate financier Aareal Bank was rumoured to be in discussions to buy the small Düsseldorfer Hypothekenbank, a commercial property lender which got into difficulties... more
Kiefer, CC BY-SA
Qataris ready to invest billions in German real estate
Qatari investors attending the recent Qatar-German Business & Investment Forum in Berlin earlier this month, the fourth such event, were very bullish about the German economy in general, and several key players said they specifically... more
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Glut of retail-related funds among €20bn being liquidated
More than €20bn of real estate assets are expected to be released back into the market, over the next 10 years, as funds reach their end of life. Particularly in focus will be funds with a retail concentration, which is likely to put further... more
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Helaba Invest launches loan fund for Sparkassen
Helaba Invest, the asset manager of the Frankfurt-based landesbank Helaba, is for the first time offering a fund based on real estate loans that gives savings banks (Sparkassen) access to Helaba's own diversified credit portfolio. more
REFIRE
Berlin is not New Zealand. Let’s be thankful for that.
Billionaire startup investor Peter Thiel made headlines when he bought an estate on New Zealand’s South Island as a bolthole in the event of global apocalyptic Armageddon. Luckily for him – and fellow futurologists like Elon Musk... more
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Frankfurt skyscrapers change hands for more than €1bn
Even by Frankfurt’s standards, it was a busy week for sales. No less than three office towers changed hands within a seven-day period earlier this month in the city for more than a billion euros, along with a number of significant other office transa more
Patrizia
Junghof Plaza in Frankfurt changes hands for €400m
Patrizia Immobilien subsidiary TRIUVA, has agreed the forward purchase of Junghof Plaza, a 33,000sqm, mixed-use property in the centre of Frankfurt, for about €400m. The property was bought on behalf of a large German pension scheme from a joint vent more
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No sign of let-up in booming student and micro housing market
The boom in investment into the student and micro-housing market in German shows no sign of any let-up, with transaction volume for the first half of the year up a whopping 224% to more than €1.6bn, shows the latest study by property brokers CBRE. more
DRESTATE Services GmbH
AIM-listed Summit Germany buys majority of GxP from Consus
Summit Germany Ltd, the AIM-listed German commercial property investment company, has agreed to buy a 72% controlling interest in German real estate company GxP from German firm Consus Real Estate for €45 million. more
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European logistics yield sees fall to below 6% on sustained demand
The average European logistics yield dropped 14 basis points (bps) to 5.95% in Q2 2018, the first time it has fallen below 6% since Cushman & Wakefield began regularly tracking the three main property sectors in 1992... more
Münchener Hypothekenbank eG
MünchenerHyp sees new business lending fall by 21%
Despite posting half year figures which showed net interest income rising by 11% year-on-year, the Munich-based property financier MünchenerHyp saw new business lending fall sharply, against a background of higher pressure... more