Allianz Real Estate is considering investing in property stocks for the first time as it struggles to meet its targets to boost its direct real estate portfolio.

Allianz Real Estate is considering investing in property stocks for the first time as it struggles to meet its targets to boost its direct real estate portfolio.

'Year after year it’s difficult for us to find more than €2 bn of investments,' CEO Olivier Piani told news wire Bloomberg. 'There are a number of new players in the market, sovereign-wealth funds and the like, who pay more than we would be willing to.'

Piani said he now plans to seek approval from the company’s board this year to buy stock in a listed company in one of the eurozone countries. Up till now, Allianz Real Estate has excluded property equities from its strategy which has focussed on direct real estate investments and property loans.

Europe’s largest insurer is now targeting a €30 bn real estate portfolio by 2018, Piani said. Originally, he had targeted that figure for this year. The company has also tempered its ambitions for its property lending activities which Piani sees growing to €10 bn by 2017 from €6.6 bn at present, two years behind schedule.