A German pension fund has increased the size of its residential portfolio to €430m by acquiring apartments in Germany and Denmark.
Bouwfonds Investment Management said it purchased the three assets in Leipzig and Copenhagen for a total of €117m on behalf of the South German Versorgungswerk.
The Dutch real assets fund manager told IP Real Estate that the investment was for the same Versorgungswerk for which it had bought other apartments in Germany and Denmark in June for €130m.
Institutional Investment Partners (2IP), which is acting as KVG for the pension fund’s entire real estate portfolio, confirmed that it is the same investor for which Savills Investment Management bought two retail properties in Germany at the beginning of August for €60m.
“Overall the investor’s real estate portfolio is measuring billions,” Jörg Homann, managing partner at 2IP, said.
He added that 2IP set up a multi-manager-investor masterfund for the Versorgungswerk.
His company has been acting as KVG for this client for “a while now” and Bouwfonds IM was mandated more than two years ago while Savills Investment Management is a new asset manager for the client.
“The Versorgungswerk does not want to name a final target size for the residential portfolio yet,” said Michael Keune, European residential fund manager at Bouwfonds.
But he added it was “certain more purchases will be made” and that the first purchase was made in Summer 2013.
In terms of geography, Keune noted Denmark has been on Bouwfonds’ radar since 2011 as an “attractive, stable market”.
“One of our current focuses is on Copenhagen because – just like in Germany – in Scandinavia large cities are reporting increasing population figures and along with it an increase in demand for housing,” he said.
