German property group Patrizia’s flagship Living Cities fund has increased its equity to €1.5 bn following a strong fundraising period and has agreed to invest circa €600 mln on behalf of its clients in a high-quality Barcelona residential portfolio.
The fund, a European open- ended residential investment vehicle, has the ambition of reaching at least €2 bn equity in 2022 with further investments across Europe in the pipeline.
The portfolio in Barcelona comprises 10 residential assets and consists of a mix of newly completed buildings and buildings that will be constructed during the course of this year, complete with additional services like gyms, co-working spaces, concierge, lounge areas and swimming pools.
‘All investment decisions for our Living Cities fund are supported by data intelligence analytics that measure the attractiveness and future potential of the assets we target. In combination with our strong local knowledge, over 200 residential real estate professionals, plus our expert alternatives team, we delivered on a complex, structured investment for our clients. Using our AI technology, we found that the Barcelona assets we have purchased are all very well positioned in their respective macro and micro locations in terms of their proximity to amenities with exciting future growth prospects,’ said Sebastian Dietert, fund manager of the Living Cities Fund at Patrizia.
The fund has delivered strong returns this year for its clients which include pension funds and insurance companies from a mix of European, Middle Eastern and Asian economies. Other recent acquisitions for Living Cities include a large student housing portfolio purchased in Denmark and a residential scheme in Ireland, totalling around 1,500 units, a Build-to-Rent scheme in Reading, in the UK, of 281 apartments, a 24-storey residential tower in Helsinki, Finland, as well as a residential development and a multi-family asset in Sweden.
‘The Living sector, especially multifamily, continues to be very resilient among the economic fluctuations of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of Q3 2021 we achieved 10.7 % total return year over year for our clients, so we are on track to beat our own annual target of between 6 and 7% return for our fund,’ said Nathalie Winkelmann, Living Cities Fund director and head of Residential Fund Management at Patrizia.
