DIFA, the German open-ended real estate fund, intends to sell off more than EUR 1 bn of real estate in Germany, an unidentified company source is saying in the Financial Times Deutschland. The source said DIFA has assigned Atisreal to find buyers for approximately 40 buildings and land plots. Germany remains DIFA's most important market as it will still have over 80 property assets, valued at EUR 5.3 bn, in the country even after a successful sale of the EUR 1 bn in property.
DIFA, the German open-ended real estate fund, intends to sell off more than EUR 1 bn of real estate in Germany, an unidentified company source is saying in the Financial Times Deutschland. The source said DIFA has assigned Atisreal to find buyers for approximately 40 buildings and land plots. Germany remains DIFA's most important market as it will still have over 80 property assets, valued at EUR 5.3 bn, in the country even after a successful sale of the EUR 1 bn in property.
German open-ended funds experienced a crisis of confidence in 2005. They suffered outflows of EUR 3.43 bn - EUR 3.05 bn in December alone - after the freezing of three large funds caused investors to abandon others en masse. More recently, open-ended funds have made a come-back, taking advance of improving market conditions in Germany to sell off assets to improve their financial positions.
The funds are not out of the woods yet though. Investors withdrew EUR 8.5 bn from open-ended funds from January to November 2006.