In accordance with Savills data, about €4.9 billion was invested into residential portfolios in Germany in the Q 1 of 2014, up on €3.77 billion recorded in Q1 2013. This is mainly the result of three major transactions which generated two thirds of the quarterly turnover. These deals comprise Deutsche Annington buying 30,000 units from Vitus Group for €1.4 billion and the Dewag Portfolio of 11,500 units for just below €1 billion and the purchase of the DGAG portfolio by Buwog (Immofinanz Group) for approximately €900 million.
“The largest transactions anticipated for 2014 have completed in the first quarter pushing up turnover and consequently we are expecting lower investment volumes in the remaining three quarters. Another few packages in the three-digit million range will change ownership over the coming months and are likely to push annual turnover above the €10 billion mark, representing another strong year for the market segment. However, as the number of billion-euro transactions is likely to remain low we do not expect this year’s volume to reach the very strong level in 2013 when almost €14 billion was transacted. Overall, the parameters for the residential asset class continue to be very favourable with demand for German residential packages continuing to exceed supply this year.” – says Karsten Nemecek, managing director corporate finance – valuation at Savills Germany
