Belgium’s largest listed real estate company Cofinimmo has set its sights on the relatively new niche asset class of medical office buildings, CEO Jean-Edouard Carbonnelle has told PropertyEU in an interview.
Since 2014, Cofinimmo has been one of the largest investors in healthcare properties in Continental Europe, a strategy that has been driven by demographic trends.
‘Our goal is to reach 50% of our portfolio in healthcare assets in the countries we have a presence in, which are Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany,’ said Carbonnelle.
Now the group is zooming in on a specific asset class which has been very successful in the US, but is still virtually unknown in Europe, he said: ‘We are investing in primary care and in particular in medical office buildings, multi-tenant locations which are relatively active in terms of management.’ These are one-stop shops for medical services, places where customers can see their general practictioner, a therapist and other medical professionals in the same building, and there is usually a pharmacy on the ground floor.
‘Medical office buildings are relatively small assets but we hope to build a collection of them,’ said Carbonnelle. ‘Yields are very good, starting at 7.5%, and long-term tenure is another advantage. They are also in line with public policy trends, which insist on first-line care and not just hospitals and large facilities.’
Cofinimmo has done its research, he said: ‘If you look at the assets of US healthcare REITs there are as many medical office buildings as there are nursing homes. We are a specialist in nursing homes, but in this new sector there is an opportunity which has not been explored in Europe and which we believe has a large potential.’
