German open-ended funds in liquidation will be forced to sell another €3.5 bn of assets next year, according to Magali Marton, head of CEMEA Research at DTZ.

German open-ended funds in liquidation will be forced to sell another €3.5 bn of assets next year, according to Magali Marton, head of CEMEA Research at DTZ.

‘We estimate that most of these sales will be carried out in Southern Europe, CEE and the Benelux,’ Marton said at Expo Real on Tuesday. Disposals are forecast to be carried out at discounts of up to 50% in difficult markets such as Southern Europe, she added. So far this year, GOEFs in liquidation have sold at discounts of between 11 and 28%, according to DTZ estimates.

In total, some €19 bn of assets will have to be sold by the 17 German open ended funds in liquidation by 2017, representing 9 million m2 largely located in Europe (7 million m2).

‘Around 18% of these sales need to be completed by next year,’ Marton said. ‘However, in terms of pressure, 2017 will be the most challenging year, as we estimated nearly half of the total sales will have to close in that period. But we believe that most of the assets which will come for sale in 2017 will be in Germany, as opposed to next year when most of the assets are in more challenging markets.’