Property adviser Cushman & Wakefield has made two key appointments in Germany in recent months in a bid to step up its presence in the biggest market in Continental Europe.

Property adviser Cushman & Wakefield has made two key appointments in Germany in recent months in a bid to step up its presence in the biggest market in Continental Europe.

From 1 October, Markus Schmitt-Habersack holds the position of chairman of investment in Germany from the firm’s Frankfurt office. Also effective from the same date is the appointment of Brian Tucker as head of shopping centre investment at the firm’s office in Munich. Both newcomers, who have joined as partners, have a common history as employees of Germany’s leading retail developer ECE Projektmanagement.

Schmitt-Habersack has spent the last 15 years with the Hamburg-based developer, latterly as director M&A, responsible for mergers & acquisitions in the Western Europe region. Prior to that he held positions including head of Development Shopping Center and Office Traffic Industries and head of Business Development of ECE International.

Tucker has over 20 years’ experience in the real estate sector. Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, he spent nearly seven years as head of retail acquisitions & sales responsible for retail investments with Deka Immobilien in Frankfurt. He also held leading positions with companies including ECE Projektmanagement in Hamburg, and Hammerson in Berlin.

‘There is a growing international appetite to invest in Germany,’ Schmitt-Habersack told PropertyEU. ‘There is more product coming to the market due to sales by some of Germany’s liquidating open-ended funds and banks and debt financing is expected to remain cheap for the next 12 months. Some of the money coming into the market from Asia and North America is not familiar with Germany. We see a role for ourselves in educating those investors about the market.’

Germany is not like the UK or France with one main city, Tucker added. ‘It has multiple cities. Germany hasn’t traditionally been so international but it’s changing very quickly. As the market becomes more transparent, investors are also prepared to accept lower returns. The market is very hot and we expect it to remain a growth market at least for the next 12 months. There’s a huge amount of national and global capital chasing very few deals.’

While the German market is already very competitive, Schmitt-Habersack believes there is still room for C&W to grow. ‘The fundamentals are there. If you look at the spread between German bonds (around 1% ed.) and real estate (around 4.5% for core assets ed.), I don’t think they can go much lower than that, except maybe for trophy assets; they might go below 4%. Our clients have indicated they are very happy to see a new strength. Competition is healthy.’