APG rejects call to plug Dutch funding gap

Angelien Kemna, chief investment officer at APG Asset Management, has rejected calls from Dutch industry leaders to help plug the funding gap in the Netherlands created by banks deleveraging and refinancing problems.

‘The funding gap is not the fault of pension funds,’ she said in answer to a question from Jeppe de Boer, chief investment officer at Dutch developer OVG, during a panel discussion at the annual INREV conference in Vienna at end-April. ‘Pension money doesn’t belong to the government, it belongs to the pension fund participants. Pension fund money is for individuals.’

According to figures from PropertyEU Research, Dutch pension funds accounted for less than 10% of real estate transaction volume in the Netherlands in 2011. Leaders from within and outside the Dutch real estate sector have in recent months suggested that pension funds could provide a boost to the property market, in particular the housing sector, by freeing up funds.

Kemna pointed out that APG has extended a helping hand with the stabilisation of European banks and by providing project finance and loans to small and medium-sized business. ‘There has to be a win-win solution. We’re not buying anything for too high a price.’

She added that the Dutch government should have acted more presciently and created a sovereign wealth fund from the income on its enormous natural gas reserves. ‘Now they’re gone,’ she said matter-of-factly.

APG is the asset management arm of Dutch pension fund giant ABP and one of the biggest players in the global real estate arena with more than EUR 20 bn assets under management.

Earlier this year, Guido Verhoef, head of private real estate at Dutch peer PGGM, said Dutch industry should not count on Dutch pension funds forking out billions of euros for property and urban development. During a conference, he said PGGM's investment strategy was aimed at direct, high and stable returns. 'Most plans and projects do not meet that requirement.' PGGM targets returns of between 7-8%.

Of the EUR 7.5 bn that PGGM invests in direct real estate, only EUR 1.6 bn is tied up in Dutch real estate, excluding listed property companies.