Barings, one of the largest diversified real estate investment managers, has been selective for its value add fund BREEVA II, but has made an investment in Portugal in the logistics sector.
The firm reached final close as far back as February 2022 at the hard cap of €850 mln, but it has kept back significant dry powder.
Now the firm has revealed the acquisition of a 210,000 m2 plot near Lisbon.
Barings has invested in land in a prime location near Lisbon from Saint-Gobain Group on which it will develop one of the largest logistics parks in Portugal.
The scheme will consist of around 85,000 m2 logistics space targeting high sustainability credentials, including BREEAM Excellent and carbon reduction certificates.
Located in Santa Iria de Azoia, an area with a lack of Grade A logistics supply in the Portuguese capital, Barings will develop the scheme together with one of Europe’s leading logistics real estate developers as development manager.
The site is in the Lisbon urban area, which is seeing growing logistics demand as evidenced by almost zero vacancy in A-grade logistic space. The scheme will benefit from access to the main distribution roads, such as the A1 and the A30, and has strong public transport links with Lisbon accessible in 25
minutes by train.
Barings said it believes it can deploy BREEVA II into the 'current heavily corrected market', targeting primarily logistics and living real estate in strategic markets across Europe.
José Carlos Torres, MD and head of Iberian real estate, said: 'We continue to take advantage selectively of the opportunities that the current market environment offers, and this deal reflects the attractiveness both of the Iberian peninsula and logistics real estate where we see positive supply and demand conditions.'
Its preferred sectors are logistics and living such as student housing and BTR, in European markets such as Spain, Portugal, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, the Nordics, and the Netherlands.
