GERMANY - German property company iii-investments has acquired an office building near former 'Checkpoint Charlie' in Berlin-Mitte for an unnamed professional pension fund (Versorgungswerk).
The 16,000 square meter mixed office and retail building in Berlin, Zimmerstraße, was bought from a Luxembourg fund company for an undisclosed sum.
A spokesman for the real estate arm of the HypoVereinsbank in the UniCredit Group, which has around €4.6bn in assets under management, told IPE: "It is added to the portfolio of an individual fund that iii-investments is managing for a German 'berufsständige Versorgungswerk'."
He added that the individual Spezialfonds was still being set up and therefore "flexible" regarding its final size.
In a statement, iii-investments pointed out that the property was built in 2000 and was fully leased to several tenants.
Stefan Janotta, head of research at iii-investments, said: "Against the background of rare new construction activities in the coming years, we expect decreasing vacancy rates and rising rents in centrally located areas."
In mid-December, Colliers International Germany predicted an "above-average" year for office rental, with the turnover in the six most important office markets increasing by 8%.
