Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate has bought two distribution warehouses for its open-ended German logistics real estate fund.
The Warburg-HIH Deutschland Logistik Invest fund has paid an undisclosed sum for the properties located in Saarland and in the Rhine-Main region as its first logistics properties.
The single-tenant property in Saarland, which will already be completed in April, provides about 18,100sqm of warehouse and lettable logistics space of and over 1,300sqm of office space. It is fully occupied on a long-term lease.
The second acquisition involves a distribution warehouse under development in the Frankfurt am Main metro area. The logistics property has about 15,000sqm of lettable warehouse and logistics space, around 2,700sqm of office space and about 100 car parking spots. The multi-tenant property is fully occupied, the average remaining lease term being around 13 years. The completion is scheduled for mid-2020.
The fund, which expects to invest in some value-add assets, is also in exclusive talks to buy additional assets worth double-digit millions, the manager said.
The fund, which plans to raise €250m, has so far raised over €100m and is expected to have a €500m worth of assets.
Andreas Strey, senior fund manager at Warburg-HIH Invest, said: “We have made much faster progress both with the fundraising among investors and the acquisition of properties than we had planned for 2020.”
Lars Bothe, senior transaction manager at Warburg-HIH Invest, said the ongoing coronavirus crisis has increased popular acceptance of e-commerce and will boost its growth in the long term.
“In addition, we are expecting to see a trend toward changed supply chains, especially of system- and production-relevant goods that will roll back the off-shoring to Asia and prompt increased on-shoring in Germany, resulting in growing demand for logistics accommodation in Germany.
“The logistics real estate sector stands to benefit from the trend accordingly.”
