The resilience and strength of residential was further demonstrated in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic pummelled the retail sector which was already suffering from competition in the growth of e-commerce as well as hitting the commercial office sector as people retreated to their homes to work. As urbanisation trends continue to raise demand and put pressure on the insufficient supply of housing in European cities, residential real estate, in all its guises, still represents a sound investment category.
We have built a dedicated and experienced pan-European team which has access to an extensive network of local partners, with deep market knowledge on the ground. With experience extending back to 2007, we are active in several areas of the housing market, including student accommodation, where we launched a fund in 2017. We have delivered outperformance for our clients by developing and using strategic top-down market intelligence combined with research-driven investment strategies (top-down and bottom-up). We also apply the micro skills needed to succeed in the EU’s highly fragmented and strongly regulated residential investment.
Our strategy is based on the following key tenets:
- We invest in residential assets in select target countries across Europe, thereby diversifying the risk profile of our funds through the low correlations in performance between regional markets.
- We particularly focus our investments on regions with strong and varied concentrations of knowledge-intensive industries and above-average economic performance. Such general characteristics have proven favourable for the return on investment in housing in recent years, and we believe this will continue to be the case.
Investment Criteria
- Modern, affordable residential real estate assets (existing buildings and turnkey projects) with a minimum investment of €15 million to a maximum of €60 million
- Pan-European with a focus on, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain
- Cities (100,000-plus population size) or smaller towns (circa 50,000 residents) in metropolitan areas which demonstrate positive demographic growth
- Commercial plots in Germany and Austria located on the edge of residential areas with and without planning permission and building permits
- Commercial buildings with the potential for conversion into residential in Germany and Austria
- Subsidised housing, micro-living and student accommodation (fully-furnished; without operator)
