Patrizia opens office in Stockholm

German listed residential investor Patrizia Immobilien is opening an office in Stockholm to supervise the company's operations in Scandinavia. The new office will be headed by Hendrik Österberg.

Patrizia is the first non-Scandinavian residential real estate investor to have entered Finland and is looking to expand its presence across Scandinavia. 'The Scandinavian countries are among Europe's most attractive residential real estate markets,' said Wolfgang Egger, CEO of Patrizia Immobilien. 'Our Euro City Residential Fund I has already been invested in Sweden and Finland for some time. Because international transactions will be increasing in the European residential real estate sector, we would like to expand our local presence in the markets. This is because knowledge of the respective legal system and the national particularities is essential for adequately analyzing risk and opportunity.'

According to Patrizia, the potential of the markets in Scandinavia is based above all on the stable economic situation, the already rising prices and rents, and the increasing future urbanisation. House prices in Finland, Norway and Sweden have increased more than twice as much as in Germany. In Finland, urbanisation is forecast to increase from around 65% at present to around 80% in 2050.

Egger said Scandinavia will also play an important role for its commercial real estate funds. 'At present, we have committed an investment volume of hundreds of millions to the Swedish and Finnish office and retail real estate market. With a view to the excellent fundamental data, we see very good opportunities for diversifying the portfolios of our institutional investors with attractive properties in Scandinavia.'

He continued: 'Viewed across several market cycles, Scandinavian commercial real estate displays a high degree of stability: Rents and returns fluctuate much less here than in many European cities. We think that the confidence of investors who currently wish to invest more in these countries is more than justified. The noticeably swift market recovery after the last economic crisis also speaks in favor of this. Offices in Sweden, Norway and Finland have been generating higher rents again since 2010 and higher rents have been charged for retail space in Sweden and Helsinki since 2009.'

Patrizia focuses on residential real estate investment and has been listed on Deutsche Börse Prime Standard and been a member of the SDAX since 2006. Via its subsidiaries, Patrizia WohnInvest Kapitalanlagegesellschaft and Patrizia GewerbeInvest Kapitalanlagegesellschaft, the company also issues specialized real estate funds. Altogether Patrizia currently manages real estate assets worth over EUR 5 bn.