News from 07/30/2007
IVG: Purchases and sales in Paris for €323mn
IVG (Bonn) has sold a business and office building in Paris' thirteenth arrondissement for €165mn and has acquired two office buildings for a total of €158mn. The sold property (15,000 m²) is located in the Rive Gauche district and went to IGCE (Caisse d'Épargne) within a share deal. IVG also acquired two office buildings for a total of €158mn, one of which is part of the “Galilee Velizy� ensemble (32,000 m², purchase price: €116mn, seller: subidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland), located in the vicinity of the Orly Airport. The other office building, “Le Chocolaterie� (6,000 m², purchase price: €42mn, seller: PREF Luxembourg), is in the immediate vicinity of the “La Defénse� business center. Both acquisitions are rented long term to, among others, Thales (the fund manager) and FCB SA (IPG Group). Dr. Georg Reul, a member of the board at IVG who's responsible for the company's investment division, regards Paris as a top European location and an important core market for IVG.
Hamburg: Deutsche Real Estate buys logistics complex
Deutsche Real Estate AG has acquired a logistics complex in Billbrook, a district on Hamburg's eastern side, for €15.88mn. The six buildings, with a site of 44,614 m² and a rentable area of 23,531 m², are 91.5% rented to two international logistics concerns, a construction services provider, and customs. Annual income from rent currently amounts to around €1.2mn. At the beginning of the year, Deutsche Real Estate acquired a logistics property in neighboring Lüneburg in the state of Lower Saxony.
Attributing the bulk of Frankfurt am Main's existing office space vacancy to non-marketable areas in need of renovation, the city's Chamber of Commerce anticipates more than 10% growth in transaction volume in the Frankfurt/Rhein-Main area this year, thus driving the need to proceed with new projects, including high-rises.
Bavaria: LBS expecting €7bn in new business for 2007
Despite discontinuation of the first-time home buyer tax allowance, LBS Bayern wishes to continue expanding its transactions in building savings contracts this year. The volume of new business could surpass last year's €6.85bn, said Franz Wirnhier, LBS management's spokesperson. More than half of this amount (€3.56bn) has already been attained during the first six months of 2007. On the other hand, the number of building permits dropped by 52% for one-family houses and 49% for apartments from January through April. "The construction of one-family houses in Bavaria was never in such bad shape," Wirnhier commented. In thriving locations, he said, a shortage of apartments is gradually materializing, and for this reason, experts have long been prophesying exploding rents and sharply rising construction and purchase prices.
Beos: Branch opened in Zurich
Beos, the project developer and asset manager, opened a branch office in Zurich at the beginning of July. The firm hopes for attractive Swiss investments, particularly in the business properties segment and with sale-and-lease-back transactions. The Zurich office in question is Beos' second branch office outside of the firm's Berlin headquarters; an office in Hamburg was opened last year.