Rockspring targets €1.5b of deals in 2014

Rockspring Property Investment Managers is targeting €1.5 bn of transactions in 2014, Rockspring partner and head of transactions, Jo De Clercq, told PropertyEU in an interview.

Over €1 bn of this figure will be allocated to acquisitions across Europe, he added.

‘In the past two years acquisition volumes have been at a slightly lower level, reflecting the overall lack of market liquidity, so this year we are targeting some €1 bn in new purchases and €500 mln of sales,’ De Clercq said, adding that the risk profile will range from core to core plus and value-add.

Commenting on Rockspring’s acquisition strategy, he noted that logistics will be one key focus of investment in the coming months. ‘There is demand in the logistics sector from the occupier side, which is not the case in offices,’ he explained. ‘This is the reason we are targeting development in the logistics sector, in the short term. In our funds, 15-20% of investment is often allocated to development, and so we have an opportunity to carry out speculative developments as part of a broader strategy.’

The company is currently undertaking the speculative development of Skylab, an office building in Geneva, Switzerland, together with its business associate, Partners Group. It has committed CHF 150 mln (€120 mln) to the new development, which will offer 22,500 m2 of space in the Plan-les-Ouates district of Geneva.

For the past couple of years the company has tended to focus on stronger economic areas with greater liquidity, but things will change in the near future, De Clercq added. ‘We will look at residential in the UK, Germany and Sweden. We feel that pricing in the sector has now stabilised, there is product available, and we believe that the sector will prove itself as a reliable market.’

Geographically, Rockspring is looking into Warsaw and Stockholm as well as Southern Europe, he added. ‘I hope that in the next 12 months we will have done one or two deals in Spain and Italy. In Italy, in particular, retailers have continued to perform very well, even through the crisis, so we plan to focus on this segment in the main cities of Milan and Rome.’