Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) said on Thursday that it has entered the Austrian property market with the purchase of SMARTments Heiligenstadt in Vienna, an 11-storey development comprising 313 units for students and business travellers, for €42 mln.
Located in the district of Döbling, SMARTments Heiligenstadt comprises apartments for students and trainees and is scheduled for completion in late 2021. The property is rented to SMARTments Ges.m.b.h., a subsidiary of GBI, on a long-term basis. The seller is a joint venture between GBI and Strabag Real Estate.
Solvejg Rosenbaum, fund manager at CESHF, said: 'The acquisition of SMARTments Heiligenstad in Vienna is a good example of the flexibility in our investment strategy this provides, because we were able to shift our focus from some fully-priced German cities to Austria, the sixth European country for our student housing fund, where the market offered better value.'
Catella's European Student Housing Fund achieved an overall performance of 11.3% in 2019. The fund launched in 2013 as the first pan-European Student accommodation investment vehicle, and so far has generated an average return of 7.1% per annum.
