News from 03/09/2007
Dresden: Fortress invests €70mn in restoration
This year, Fortress Deutschland GmbH wants to invest €70mn in the municipal area residential portfolios it acquired last year. Since the purchase of the municipal residential construction company Woba, vacancy has decreased from 16 to 12%, said Fortress Deutschland boss Matthias Moser to the Sächsischen Zeitung (a daily newspaper for the German free state of Sachsen). Criticism comes from a fraction of the renters: Rent was raised for around 3,400 residences from the comprehensive portfolio of 48,000 residences.
Degi: Grundwert Fund sells three office and business buildings
The Grundwert (or Basic Value) Fund, an open property fund of the company Degi, has sold a package of three office and business buildings to the US property firm RFR Holding, New York, for €142mn. The properties sold include three office and business buildings in Hamburg (Kaufmannshaus), Berlin (Kurfürstendamm, colloquially Ku'damm), and Munich (Maximilian Street) with usable area between 3,000 and 23,000 m². In part, the properties were in the Grundwert Fund for over ten years. Sales revenue is to be invested abroad, according to Degi. German stake in the fund should be driven back. At the same time, RFR is further enlargening its German portfolio.
A decision about construction in the Barmer Quarter and sites at the Deutz train station's Otto Plaza will be made by summer.
Numisma: Five retail properties sold to Numisma
The British investor group Numisma Group Ltd. has taken over a package of five retail properties from Union Investment Real Estate AG's Difa Fund Nr. 1. Numisma's consultancy, McCafferty Asset Management Ltd., was the mastermind behind the purchase of retail properties in Hannover, Braunschweig, and Wolfsburg. In the meantime, the Numisma Fund achieved an investment volume of €500mn in Germany and plans to invest the same amount in 2007.
In light of the high influx of funds, initiators of closed funds are presently searching for new ways to satisfy investors who expect high rates of return.