GERMANY – SEB has finalised the proposed sale of its German portfolio to Dundee International Real Estate Investment Trust.

In total, SEB sold 137,000 square meters of floor space across 11 German office buildings for €420m, "slightly less than 5% below the most recently appraised market values", the company said in a statement.

Nine of the properties belonged to SEB's previously open-ended real estate fund, forced to close following the financial crisis.

The other two office buildings were part of the SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund, a "semi-institutional real estate fund", the company added.

Meanwhile, CBRE said results from its most recent 'Real Estate Investor Intentions Survey' found that Germany had surpassed the UK as the most attractive market for property investments.

More than one-third of those surveyed cited Germany as the most attractive market to invest in in 2013, up by 8 percentage points, compared with 27% in the previous year.

The UK was named as the most attractive market by 24%, down from 32%.

While London is by far the most attractive city for investors, CBRE said that, in the case of Germany, no single city dominated the survey.

"Among the Top 10 investment locations, there are as many as four Germany cities. At 16%, Munich comes second in the ranking, followed by Berlin," CBRE noted, adding that Hamburg and Frankfurt also were in the Top 10.

In an unrelated study, Colliers International also found that Germany was "on its way" to becoming the most important real estate market in Europe.

Its total transaction volume of €25.4bn for 2012 was 10% higher than in 2011, boosted by major deals in the last quarter, the company's German business said in a statement.

Regarding commercial property, Germany still ranked behind the UK when it came to transaction volumes, it added.

For 2013, head of investment Ignaz Trombello predicted that transactions would be limited due to a lack of supply.

He said he expected transaction volumes to be "well above €20bn", with a stable demand and stable or slightly receding top yields.

Further, he predicted "continued high level of commitment" by foreign investors within the German market.

Topics