DeAWM hits record €3.6b transaction volume in 2014

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (Deutsche AWM)'s real estate investment business bought and sold a record €3.6 bn of property in 2014, up nearly 40% on the year before.

The volume compares to around €2.2 bn in 2013.

Internationally, five properties were purchased for €528 mln and four sold for around €585 mln for the company's two open-ended real estate funds, grundbesitz europa and grundbesitz global. The new open-ended real estate fund, grundbesitz Fokus Deutschland, has several investment opportunities still at the evaluation stage.

For the closed-end funds business, one property was sold in 2014 with a volume of €173 mln, while residential property was purchased for a total volume of around €25 mln. The 15 special funds for institutional investors acquired 19 properties for €2 bn, while 14 property sales generated proceeds of €290 mln.

In total, there were 43 individual transactions as well as one residential real estate portfolio transaction with a total volume of €3.6 bn.

'2014 was a record year for us with extraordinary market opportunities,' said Georg Allendorf, co-head of real estate for Europe at Deutsche AWM. 'Germany saw the bulk of purchasing and selling activity, in addition to European metropolitan areas as well as activity in the United States and Asia Pacific.'

In Germany, the real estate fund business of Deutsche AWM manages three open-ended real estate funds. The business unit manages 52 closed-end funds with a total volume of €5.6 bn. In addition, it manages 15 real estate special funds for more than 80 institutional investors with a total investment volume of €4.9 bn.