AEW is planning to invest €500m in German office markets, having raised €118m for a new fund.

The investment manager has achieved a first close on its new City Office Germany fund, for which it said it hopes to eventually raise €250m.

With maximum leverage of 50%, AEW intends to create a €500m portfolio. 

The fund will buy office properties in the seven biggest cities in Germany and other parts of the country where office rents are expected to grow strongly.

Investment manager Sebastian Grobe said: “German office markets are experiencing robust tenant demand with limited supply of quality space, in part due to the conversion of office assets to alternative uses. 

“We will seek to deploy capital into locations that are underpinned by strong and growing economic fundamentals, and have secured a pipeline of opportunities which are under exclusivity.”

AEW was recently given a core European real estate mandate by a German pension fund, and in May bought a German retail porfolio from BMO Real Estate Partners.