Austrian property group Immofinanz has expanded its logistics activities with the acquisition of four logistics centres in Germany and two in Switzerland through its Deutsche Lagerhaus subsidiary. Together they provide a total usable floor space of 177,300 m2, increasing the Deutsche Lagerhaus portfolio to 26 properties at 722,800 m[sup]2[/sup]. Immofinanz has also increased its stake in Deutsche Lagerhaus to 90%.
Austrian property group Immofinanz has expanded its logistics activities with the acquisition of four logistics centres in Germany and two in Switzerland through its Deutsche Lagerhaus subsidiary. Together they provide a total usable floor space of 177,300 m2, increasing the Deutsche Lagerhaus portfolio to 26 properties at 722,800 m2. Immofinanz has also increased its stake in Deutsche Lagerhaus to 90%.
The acquisition includes what will become Deutsche Lagerhaus' new 61,743 m2 'flagship' centre at Bülach near Zurich Airport, while the largest investment in Germany is a logistics centre in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Bönen, which has 52,740 m2 of total usable space. All the properties are fully let to international freight companies and large retail chains.
Immofinanz has an objective of developing the Deutsche Lagerhaus portfolio to one million m2 of usable space by 2009. 'German real estate prices have already risen strongly in the areas of office, retail and residential,' said Immofinanz Chairman Karl Petrikovics. 'While they are now no longer particularly attractive for investors, prices for logistics real estate have trailed and realisable yields are considerably higher than in other market segments. For this reason we are going to increase our pace of growth in the area of logistics even more in order to fully profit from the decline in yields expected in the short term and the price increase related to this.'
