Allianz RE aims to boost portfolio to EUR 30bn

Allianz's real estate arm plans to increase its portfolio to around EUR 30 bn over the next four to five years following the German insurance group's decision to raise its allocation to property from 3% to 6%. Stefan Brendgen, CEO of Allianz Real Estate Germany, said during an Expo Real conference on Wednesday that the company has a global portfolio worth some EUR 17 bn at present, of which around EUR 7 bn falls under Allianz Real Estate Germany. The German real estate portfolio will be completely reorganised over the next three years, Brendgen added.

‘We will be active on the sale side as well. We want to restructure our whole portfolio which today consists of 270 assets, lots of small size, liquid properties. So there is a lot of cleaning up that we have to do and I see lots of transactions as we have been very successful until now,’ he said.

However, Brendgen also said that the lack of product in the market is making it difficult for Allianz RE to close deals. Allianz RE is competing in the market with insurance companies and other equity players for a number of well-located, long-let properties. ‘We are all pursuing the same few opportunities,’ he said.

Reinhard Kutscher, CEO of Union Investment Real Estate, also believes that there is a lack of prime product available in the market. 'We are still waiting for the big opportunities to invest, but they are not showing up,' he said during the conference at Expo Real in Munich. Kutscher said he expects to see more activity next year in tandem with companies' need to refinance the loans taken up in previous months.