Eighteen German open-ended property investment funds plan to offload their portfolios, totaling €22bn, before 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The pace of sales has slowed since 2012, with €5.1bn in transactions posted last year and just €1.7bn since January. Magali Marton, the head of research and consulting at Cushman & Wakefield, explains that the funds are taking advantage of the market situation where a surplus of cash overflow and a lack of institutional grade product is pushing prices up. Across Europe, properties worth €9bn are on sale, says Marton.
In the Czech Republic, German open-ended property investment funds mainly own office buildings totaling €800m. Ondřej Vodňanský, part of the capital markets team at Cushman & Wakefield, says the liquidation of German open-ended funds brings more positives than risks to the local market. “We are witnessing increased interest from the established local investors, who did not look at this kind of grade A properties in the past. This is a rare opportunity for them to acquire some of the best assets in the country,” says Vodňanský.
