Augsburg, August 1, 2014. PATRIZIA has signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of a portfolio of approximately 5,500 residential units in the Netherlands. The seller is the Dutch housing association Vestia. The purchase price is EUR 578 million. PATRIZIA is acquiring the portfolio for its co-investment “WohnModul I”, in which a very notable pension fund from Germany is participating. “This sale is the biggest transaction that the Dutch market has ever seen in the housing sector,” says Wolfgang Egger, CEO of PATRIZIA Immobilien AG.
PATRIZIA thus remains consistently on track to becoming Europe’s leading real estate investment company. “For some time now, our institutional investors have had such confidence in us that they are investing with us outside their familiar national borders,” emphasises Wolfgang Egger. “We have created the requisite conditions for this with our many years of experience and our European network of subsidiaries.” The co-investment strategy is based on portfolio maintenance. Demographic change in particular is in favour of the portfolio’s value stability: population growth is expected in all regions of the Netherlands up to 2025. In conjunction with the continuing fall in the average household size, this is resulting in a significant demand for housing.
The broadly diversified housing portfolio covers a total of 340,000 sqm of residential space. The vacancy rate is 3%. Approximately 70% of the homes are still subject to rent control. “The purchase agreement is still subject to the approval of various bodies on the seller side. “We expect the sale to be approved by all bodies and the transaction to be closed on schedule at the end of the financial year,” says Wolfgang Egger.
Across Europe PATRIZIA transaction business speeds up. In the last two fiscal years PATRIZIA was very successful on the investment and the investor markets. Real estate transactions totalled approximately EUR 8 billion, while EUR 3.4 billion of equity was obtained from institutional investors. The biggest deals of these investments were the acquisition of the GBW and LBBW with 53,000 housing units. Furthermore PATRIZIA had secured the two biggest commercial real estate transactions in Germany in the last two years with an investment volume of EUR 1.8 billion. "PATRIZIA has again shown that we are established in both the residential and the commercial real estate sector – in Germany and also in Europe," says CEO Wolfgang Egger. "This is particularly important to institutional investors, which are increasingly looking for a strategic partner that covers the entire real estate value chain when it comes to their real estate investments. Over the past 18 months alone, our foreign investor base has almost doubled."
About PATRIZIA Immobilien AG
With more than 700 employees in over ten countries, PATRIZIA Immobilien AG has been active on the real estate market as both an investor and service provider for 30 years. PATRIZIA’s range includes the purchase, management, value increase and sale of residential and commercial real estate. As a recognized business partner of large institutional investors, the Company operates in Germany and other countries and covers the entire value chain in the real estate industry. At present, the Company manages real estate assets worth around EUR 13 billion, primarily as co-investor and portfolio manager for insurance companies, pension fund institutions, sovereign wealth funds and savings banks. For additional information, please visit www.patrizia.ag.
Contact:
Andreas Menke
Group Head of Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 (0) 821 5 09 10-655
andreas.menke@patrizia.ag