Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has announced the launch of the world’s first ‘energy positive’ residential impact fund.
The vehicle will invest a planned €500 mln in Elithis Towers, designed to produce more energy than the building and tenants consume, across cities in France. The towers, developed by French sustainable building engineering and real estate developer Elithis Groupe, deliver both operational carbon neutrality and effective affordable rents through the elimination of domestic energy bills, hence increasing each household’s annual purchasing power.
The new Catella Elithis Energy Positive Fund (CEEPF) qualifies as an Article 9 ‘dark green’ impact fund, the highest designation under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. The first energy positive buildings to be invested by the Fund are already under agreement in the cities of Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, and Nancy.
A further 20- 25 additional sites have been identified across France with current work in progress in cities including: Mulhouse, Brest, and other suburban areas near Paris. Other European cities in markets including Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, will follow in other fund strategies as part of a wide-ranging 10-year investment programme targeting a total investment volume of €2.0 bn in developing 100 Elithis Towers across Europe.
Xavier Jongen, Managing Director, CRIM, said: ‘Our new impact fund is a trail-blazing global first for Catella in partnership with Elithis. These towers outperform the EU’s 2050 net carbon zero target operationally by using technologies which render them energy positive from the start and they can be built at market standard construction costs. The residents benefit from a substantial reduction or complete elimination of their household energy bills, which makes effective apartment rents more affordable than comparable homes in the neighbourhood -- around 5% to 10% lower on average -- and this is particularly relevant at a time of soaring energy prices in Europe. The Elithis Towers are the ‘decarbonisation and societal fairness benchmark of the future’ for the pan-European residential investment market, and we are looking for like minded impact investors to partner with Catella in realising what could be a catalyst for the sustainable transformation of our cities way beyond even our ambitious current plans.’
Catella Residential IM has already initially invested in the development of two Elithis Energy Positive Towers in the French cities of Saint-Etienne and Dijon for the Catella European Residential Fund III and an institutional mandate.
The Elithis Tower design enhances solar power generation by covering the roof and part of the building facades with photovoltaic panels and harnessing this to bioclimatic principles such as optimising the building’s surface area to limit heat losses in wintertime, capture the sun’s path during all seasons to boost solar energy gains and managing internal temperatures through automatic sunscreens and natural ventilation systems to cut costs and reduce environmental impact through energy-efficient operations. But it is the ‘human element,’ that really takes the Elithis model to new levels of environmental sustainability. Residents can control the climate of their homes through a proptech smart app which nudges them to act if temperatures are moving out of the desired range or artificial light is not needed in the room, among other features.
Thierry Bièvre, president & founder, Elithis Groupe added: ‘The Elithis Tower residential design is the first in the world to link the delivery of operational carbon neutrality to the provision of affordable rents, while not affecting investors’ returns, so everybody and the planet wins. This model provides a globally scalable ESG solution for the two greatest current crises of our times, climate change and widening social inequality, that are increasingly playing out in the earth’s environment and political polarisation. Our partnership with Catella in their new impact fund provides investors with the ability to really make a difference in residential real estate, the asset class that is bigger than all other investments combined, from fixed income to equities, because whether it’s rental or owner occupier, it’s what 8.0 billion of us humans call home.’
The world’s first energy-positive residential tower at scale, developed by Elithis in Strasbourg, France in 2018, has achieved an 8% annual surplus of energy production over consumption.
