News from 07/08/2008
Investment market: Transaction volume plunges 53% to €13.1bn
According to Atisreal, €13.1bn were invested on the German commercial property market in the first half of 2008—53% less than during the same period in the previous year. The reason for this not unexpected setback was continued turbulence in the financial markets: “Although there is still great interest in German properties on the part of both German and international investors, general financing conditions act as a powerful brake,” Piotr Bienkowski, the business manager of Atisreal Deutschland explained. He went on to say that, above all, a lack of portfolio sales held back the level of turnover, even while top individual objects still sold well. At €5.8bn, portfolio sales had a 45% share of the total turnover of €13.1bn and therefore plummeted by 64% compared to the prior year. The 46% reduction in individual deals was somewhat less. The top asset class was retail objects (with a 39% share of the total volume), followed by office properties (31%). During the first half of 2007, the asset class with the largest turnover volume was office properties, in which the more than €2bn Arcandor portfolio sale is said to be reflected disproportionately. Of the total volume, 22% was invested in logistics objects.
IVG: Office object near Paris sold for €80mn
For approximately €80mn, IVG Immobilien AG has sold its “Cap Sud” office property built in Montrouge, southwest of Paris. The buyer is Commerz Real AG, which will integrate the property into its HausInvest Europa public fund. The building, completed in March, 2008, has seven floors with a total lettable area of 12,454 sqm and 234 underground parking spaces. The anchor tenant is radio and television network operator Télé Diffusion France (TDF). As the Montrouge office market is defined by above average growth of the service sector and along with that a high demand for space, it is hoped that profits will accrue from rising rent prices, according to Commerz Real CEO Hans-Joachim Kühl.
Commerz Real: Warsaw office building acquired from SEGRO for €60mn
The British REIT SEGRO has sold the “Tulipan House” office building in Warsaw for approximately €60mn to Commerz Real. The object comprises 17,898 sqm of office space and is to be integrated into the Hausinvest Global fund. The initial return on the transaction is being quoted at 5.9%. At the moment, 90% of the “Tulipan House” is rented to, among others, Ernst & Young, Legrand, the Polish telephone company TP Emitel, Kodak and ACP Pharma. In December, 2005, SEGRO bought the object from the Dutch firm Grontmij for less than €20mn, and then put it through a comprehensive modernization. For the current transaction, SEGRO was advised by Jones Lang LaSalle and Clifford Chance.
Berlin: Residential areas now on Unesco World Heritage list
Six Modernism developments in Berlin have been put on the Unesco World Heritage list. According to the Unesco decision made in Québec, the residential areas of Gartenstadt Falkenberg, Siedlung Schillerpark, Wohnstadt Carl Legien, Großsiedlung Siemensstadt, Hufeisensiedlung Britz and Weiße Stadt are now among the 660 cultural heritage sites worldwide and are thus under special protection as “cultural sites worthy of perpetual preservation.” The owners of the settlements are the Deutsche Wohnen subsidiary Gehag (Hufeisensiedlung, Siemensstadt, Weiße Stadt), Pirelli RE (Wohnstadt Carl Legien), and Berliner Bau- und Wohnungsgenossenschaft von 1892 eG (Gartenstadt, Schillerpark), which had joined forces under the name of ”World Heritage Initiative” during the preparatory phase before inclusion in Unesco’s list.
Hamburg: Hamburg Trust acquires residential project in Bergedorf from Bouwfonds
Hamburg Trust is investing a total of approximately €24.5mn in a Bouwfonds Hamburg GmbH project in Hamburg's Bergedorf district. Construction is to start in the third quarter of 2008; the buildings are slated for completion around the middle of 2010. The apartments are to be integrated into the domicilium 3 fund, the marketing of which is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2008, Hamburg Trust announced. The project will rent out 155 apartments on some 13,000 sqm of living area, divided among five separate buildings. The investment also includes an underground garage with 138 parking spaces.
Hamburg: Hochtief plans new neighborhood for St. Katharinenviertel
Hochtief Projektentwicklung is planning a new urban neighborhood near the St. Katharinenkirche, or St. Catherine’s Church, in Hamburg. A one-stage urban planning competition to design the project was won by the architects Darlington Meier from Zurich. By the middle of 2011, residential and commercial objects are to be built on the approximately 8,500 sqm area of what has been until now an elementary school between Willy-Brandt-Strasse, Grimm and Neue Gröningerstrasse. After the school moves into the Hafencity-Schule, a total of up to 22,000 sqm of gross floor area will be developed, Hochtief reported. The winning design projects low-density construction with five- and six-story residential buildings on the edges of the block facing Grimm and Neue Gröningerstrasse. Some 100 to 120 apartments and condominiums are planned here on up to 13,800 sqm of gross floor area. On the northern side, they will be shielded from Willy-Brandt-Strasse by a line of commercial buildings. The upper floors are planned as offices, while the ground floors will be for small-area retail and gastronomy.