Frankfurt-based Commerzbank's property subsidiary Commerz Real has announced that its transaction volume across all asset classes rose by one third to €4.1 bn in 2016, compared to €3 bn in 2015.
At approximately €2.7 bn, the sales volume was about twice the size of the acquisitions (around €1.4 bn). More than half of the transactions (approximately €2.4 bn) were generated by the open-ended real estate fund hausInvest, with acquisitions and disposals at around the same levels.
'We have utilised the high demand for real estate investments to adjust our portfolio profitably, and thanks to our excellent market access, we were able to acquire lucrative assets for our investors at the same time,' commented Andreas Muschter (pictured), CEO of Commerz Real. According to the firm, the largest transactions were the sale of TaunusTower in Frankfurt am Main in partnership with Tishman Speyer and the purchase of Highlight Towers in Munich. These two transactions ranked among the 10 largest real estate deals in Germany in 2016.
Commerz Real also registered significant growth in new business, with hausInvest alone more than doubling its net inflow of funds compared to 2015 with a sum of around €1.4 bn (2015: €650 mln). Meanwhile, its asset management division leased some 408,000 m2 of space over the year, 13% more than in 2015. The deals increased occupancy rates in the hausInvest portfolio to 93.1% by the end of 2016, a rise of 1.3%.
Commerz Real's managed assets, across all product groups, amounted to a total of approximately €32 bn as of 30 November 2016. Investment products accounted for about €22 bn and financing products for another €10 bn.
'With this outstanding performance, we have further extended our position as one of the leading asset managers for real asset investments,' concluded Muschter.
