Sweden’s Kåpan Pensioner is forming a residential development joint venture with property firm Samhällsbyggnadsbolaget (SBB)to develop apartments in a region just south of Stockholm.

SBB said the new firm, Hemvist, would own and manage the properties its subsidiary Sveafastigheter produced and managed in Mälardalen, where Kåpan was already the main financier.

SBB is also selling 269 apartments it owned, worth SEK613m (€60m), to the new firm as well as ongoing projects to build 1,270 apartments, valued at SEK1.38bn.

The parties said Hemvist was planning a major investment in new construction by using Sveafastigheter’s large building rights portfolio in Stockholm and the Mälardalen region.

“This means a continued expansion of housing that promotes sustainable societal development where the company has the opportunity to influence and make a difference – socially, economically and environmentally,” SBB said.

Marie Giertz, CIO at Kåpan Pensioner, told IPE Real Assets that Kåpan had already had fixed-income investments in the SBB residential and development assets now going into the joint venture, in the form of a loan facility.

Those investments were now being effectively converted into equity in the form of a 50% ownership stake in Hemvest, she said.

“This was a good way for us to be able to hold onto our exposure to this apartment sector, and together with SBB, we will now become quite a large builder in this region,” she said.

Giertz said Hemvest aimed to double the value of its investment in the next five years.

Kåpan Pensioner, which manages pensions for government employees, had SEK105bn of assets under management at the end of June 2020 - some 15% of which are property-related.

To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.