Hamburg-based fund manager Union Investment Real Estate has bought an office block in Helsinki’s central business district for €93.3 mln.
Hamburg-based fund manager Union Investment Real Estate has bought an office block in Helsinki’s central business district for €93.3 mln.
The six-storey EY House is the headquarters of the Finnish operation of financial advisory firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young. The property was acquired from Finland's Etera Mutual Pension Insurance Company for Union’s open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa.
The investment takes the value of Union Investment’s portfolio in the Finnish capital to €460 mln, spread across 11 properties.
The 10,888 m2 building in the central Töölönlahti district is 70% let to EY Finland. It is LEED Gold certified with facilities including a café, a restaurant and conference rooms, along with 62 basement parking spaces.
Philipp LaPierre, head of investment management Europe at Union Investment Real Estate, said: ‘The office market in Töölönlahti clearly benefits from the lack of high-quality, modern buildings in Helsinki's CBD. This results in high prelettings in nearly all the new builds.’
Etera’s head of real estate, Timo Sotavalta, added: ‘Investors are currently very interested in sites like these, so we decided to sell one of the buildings to reduce the weight of offices in our portfolio.’
CBRE Finland acted as advisors to the seller, while Merilampi Attorneys provided legal advice to the seller and Roschier Attorneys for the buyer.
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