ASG buys German senior housing developer to forge €1.2b pipeline

Financial details were not disclosed.

The deal comes two years after the purchase of the WI-Immo Group, another senior housing developer, by another ASG fund. Together, the companies develop around 1,500 units a year of retirement homes or assisted living facilities.

'Germany needs to accommodate 300,000 more of its senior citizens by 2030 and we identified this as a huge opportunity for establishing a specialist developer of scale,' said Saul Goldstein, ASG’s founder and managing partner.

'Purchasing the project development activities of WirtschaftsHaus is another major step forward in this strategy and highlights how we have been favouring the unconventional corporate route to invest in attractive real estate themes in Germany on behalf of our investors,' Goldstein added.

The acquisition of the project development activities of WirtschaftsHaus is the 17th investment by ASG’s fund V, which has committed about 85% of the €489 mln it raised from investors by its final close in December 2017.

According to ASG, the fund’s investments are split between Germany and Spain, where it has invested directly into real estate – mainly in condominium projects in high-demand locations that are managed by ASG’s Spanish residential development platform, ASG Homes.

'Our local teams are seeing a significant number of highly attractive investment opportunities in Germany and Spain, which is why they have had no difficulty in deploying Fund V’s capital so quickly,' added Goldstein. 'They are well-placed to source deals and transact swiftly, managing assets to maximise their operational performance to deliver healthy returns for our funds’ investors.'

ASG is a Jersey-based real estate investment manager focused on Germany and Spain. The group was founded in 2007 by Saul Goldstein after he left Cerberus, where he held a variety of senior roles.