Corpus Sireo gears up for new acquisitions

German asset and investment manager Corpus Sireo is actively seeking to buy German real estate for a number of funds, managing director Douglas Edwards told PropertyEU.

The Cologne-based group, which manages over €16 bn of assets, is targeting new acquisitions for its first student housing investment vehicle, and is also looking into medical office properties.

‘We are on the market with a number of funds, including one for student housing, a German office fund and a medical office vehicle,’ Edwards said.

The student housing fund targets a size of €150 mln including leverage and is aiming for a dividend yield of around 6%. It will have a lifetime of 10 years plus an extension option for an additional five years.

Corpus Sireo said student housing provides interesting investment opportunities given the reduced supply of dormitory units compared to the number of Germans students. 'Student residences achieve full occupancy quickly and permanently and offer lucrative dividend yields,’ the company said. Due to the comparatively short lease terms, rent rates can also be flexibly adjusted to reflect headline rents and potentially inflationary trends.

For its German office fund, the investment manager is focusing on assets in Germany’s secondary cities, Edwards added. 'We are concentrating our efforts in secondary cities with potential but which are off the mainstream investment radar,’ the managing director said.

The strategy is in line with the group’s belief that regional top cities such as Hannover, Dresden or Nuremburg are less volatile than Germany’s Big Seven cities whose office markets are strongly linked to fluctuations in the global economy.

In addition, the company is sounding out the investor market to establish a new institutional investment product within the healthcare real estate sector, focusing on medical office buildings. Corpus Sireo's first offering will initially be on a segregated account basis.

'Around 70% of Germany's healthcare assets are publicly owned at the moment. This shows the potential for institutional investors to tap into this market,' Edwards pointed out.

Corpus Sireo manages some €800 mln worth of healthcare related properties across Germany. The group - which is active both in the commercial and the residential sectors - has recently been focusing on the provision of services while shifting away from balance sheet-owned assets. It manages assets worth over €16 bn, making the group one of the largest private asset management company in Germany.