​AP Pension links with Danish region, plans DKK1bn local RE investment

Denmark’s AP Pension plans to invest DKK1bn (€134m) in real estate in Denmark’s Zealand region - the administrative authority alongside Copenhagen - and has formed a partnership with a local development alliance.

The partnership with the Zealand Development Alliance (Sjællands Udviklingsalliance) is expected to provide opportunities to invest in residential projects, including senior housing, and public-private partnership projects.

The DKK143bn commercial mutual pension provider said its property subsidiary AP Real Estate had already made “significant” investments in Holbæk and Kalundborg - two towns within Region Zealand, an area which does not include the Capital Regional covering Copenhagen.

Bo Normann Rasmussen, AP Pension’s chief executive officer, said: “At AP Pension, we are going to have to increase our real estate investments significantly over the next few year years, and we expect the alliance to provide good, financially sound and sustainable projects.”

The pension provider said it formed the partnership with the Zealand Development Alliance - which worked to improve Zealand and the neighbouring islands Lolland and Falster - to support the development of the region through sustainable real estate projects.

The alliance consists of a board of 14 representatives from the local public, education and private sectors, and had set itself a goal of raising DKK1bn of capital to finance the development of cities and local communities in the region.

“The Zealand Development Alliance gives us the opportunity to get out into the entire area of Region Zealand quicker and with more and bigger investments,” Rasmussen said.

“We stand ready with investments in residential property, projects in public-private partnerships and in the establishment of senior homes,” he said.

A spokesman for AP Pension said the partnership agreement was ”a statement of intent” that the pension fund is ready to invest further in the region, and that no timescale had been set for the planned investments.

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