REAL ESTATE - Finnish private equity firm CapMan Oyj last week announced the first closing of a property development vehicle aimed at international pension funds.

Seven unidentified funds committed €67m to the CapMan Real Estate II Ky fund, which has an investment capacity of €600m. CapMan committed a further €2m to the fund. Around 75% of investments will be financed by debt.

The fund targets commercial properties and logistics but will also consider office, industrial, hotels, residential and public buildings. After projected development times of between 3—7 years, the fund will sell the assets on to institutional investors – largely pension funds.

CapMan head of real estate Markku Hietala said the fund would also consider investing in completed real estate projects.

Hietala said he saw international investor interest gaining momentum not only in the capital, as it had earlier, but across Finland. Until recently, domestic pension funds dominated the real estate market.

“Our first real estate fund focused on the capital but now investors are interested in different parts of Finland. It’s quite wide,” he said.

“Investment in Finnish real estate has changed over the past two years,” he added. “It’s difficult to be precise but international investment is certainly going up.”

CapMan has €2.6bn in assets under management.