Pan-European private equity real estate investment manager Mark has announced a new venture with the asset management arm of Credit Suisse to acquire and manage small-scale city centre residential properties.
Dubbed Doma, the platform aims to amass a €1bn gross asset value (GAV) pan-European portfolio through a phased expansion, focusing first on Germany and the Netherlands.
Led by Mark’s chief investment officer Josip Kardun, Doma will target centrally located individual dwellings and small apartment buildings typically of up to twelve units in size.
Bloomberg reported that Doma would seek to raise an initial €350 mln in funding.
Credit Suisse Asset Management’s real estate team has previously invested in Mark’s last-mile logistics platform Crossbay. The new venture will target an initial portfolio of €500 mln GAV across Germany and the Netherlands. The venture said that these countries had large urban residential markets marked by under-supply, creating strong foundations for future rental growth.
Kardun said: 'Residential for rent has demonstrated its resilience throughout the pandemic and in recent years emerged as an attractive alternative to fixed income for institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers thanks to its promise of long-term, liability-matching income streams with defensive, counter-cyclical qualities.
'Doma aims to replicate the success we have had with our urban logistics platform Crossbay by aggregating granular assets that institutional investors would otherwise find hard to access and achieving a portfolio premium through scale, strong branding and proactive asset management.
'Whereas institutional ownership of traditional multifamily assets is well established in Germany and the Netherlands, there is a major untapped opportunity in privately-owned smaller residential assets in prime urban locations that Doma will look to unlock using a mix of technological solutions and our network of on-the-ground teams with deep local market knowledge and contacts.'
MARK currently manages €4.4 bn in residential assets, and in 2015 launched Meyer Homes, a €600 mln residential development platform focused on sites across Greater London.
Sven, Schaltegger, head multi-manager real estate at Credit Suisse Asset Management said: 'The structuring of DOMA has been a successful collaboration with MARK to create an institutional-quality European residential platform that is well-positioned to benefit from the severe supply/demand imbalances of the sector in various European countries.
'The granularity of the seed portfolio provides a strong fit for our residential strategy that we have pursued for our investors. In the selection of our partner, it has been important to cooperate with a team that has a value-add mindset and an active asset management approach, as this should allow unlocking an attractive return potential in a residential strategy with defensive characteristics benefitting from stable income streams.'
