Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM), one of the largest pan-European platforms investing in the real estate living sector, has acquired a development of 100 apartments and a supermarket in Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, as well as a senior living property in the eastern German city of Dresden, for €30 mln.
The acquisition in Braunschweig is part of a 20,000 m2 new city quarter development on the Berliner Straße, about 3.5 km northeast of the old centre. The turnkey project consists of three buildings, which will accommodate multi-room apartments and two-room homes, as well as 27 social housing units. An organic supermarket chain will occupy 750 m2 of the ground floor.
'Catella Residential’s first acquisition in Braunschweig is an extension of our strategy to invest beyond the main European gateway metropolises to other growing cities and regions with solid demographic and economic prospects and attractive risk-return profiles,' said Matthias Bursi, Catella fund manager European residential.
'We have been able to build up a diversified €600 mln portfolio across four countries for this institutional client during the last three years,' Bursi added.
Berlin-based CRIM acquired the Braunschweig project for just under €22 mln under a separate mandate for a South German pension plan within its Institutional Investment Partners Fund (2IP). CRIM manages the 2IP portfolio.
In Dresden, Catella Residential has acquired a senior living home with 45 residential units, as well as a commercial property with 2,376 m2 of rental space for €8.4 mln. The investment was made under a separate mandate for a south German insurance company in Dresden-Neustadt within the 2IP Fund.
The building, constructed in 2017 on a plot of around 2,000 m2, is located in the Dresden district of Äußere Neustadt, north of the River Elbe and the old town.
The sellers are private entrepreneurs specialising in the construction and operation of residential real estate for families and senior citizens.
Michael Keune, managing director CRIM said: 'We were impressed by the structural quality and the location of the property. It is tailored to the needs of older residents who still wish to take advantage of all the services and cultural attractions that a city like Dresden has to offer.
'We believe that together with the compact two-room format, this formula will have a strong appeal to the senior living segment of the market,' Keune concluded.
