Real estate investment manager MARK has partnered with Credit Suisse Asset Management to buy and manage residential assets in Europe.

The companies have teamed up to create the Doma platform to target an initial portfolio of €250m by gross asset value across Germany and the Netherlands.

The platform – which intends to buy and manage small-scale city centre residential assets – has been seeded with 700 units under management. The plan is to expand the portfolio to hold €1bn worth of assets across Europe, the companies said.

Doma will form a key part of MARK’s multi-platform strategy, which has included specialised vehicles targeting opportunities UK residential, urban logistics and luxury retail.

Josip Kardun, CIO of MARK, said: “Doma aims to replicate the success we have had with our urban logistics platform Crossbay by aggregating granular assets that institutional investors would otherwise find hard to access and achieving a portfolio premium through scale, strong branding and proactive asset management.

“Whereas institutional ownership of traditional multifamily assets is well established in Germany and the Netherlands, there is a major untapped opportunity in privately-owned smaller residential assets in prime urban locations that Doma will look to unlock using a mix of technological solutions and our network of on-the-ground teams with deep local market knowledge and contacts.”

Sven, Schaltegger, the head multi-manager real estate at Credit Suisse Asset Management, said: “The granularity of the seed portfolio provides a strong fit for our residential strategy that we have pursued for our investors.

”In the selection of our partner, it has been important to cooperate with a team that has a value-add mindset and an active asset management approach, as this should allow unlocking an attractive return potential in a residential strategy with defensive characteristics benefitting from stable income streams.”

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