News and Press Releases

The European logistics markets are currently unstoppable and are reaching record levels. Supported by the flourishing online trade and a surge in demand due to last-mile requirements, the growth prospects continue to be very positive, both from an investment and user perspective.

Andreas Wesner has been appointed as Managing Director and spokesperson at Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG). He will start his new position on the 1st April 2022.

The Catella European Residential III Fund (CER III), relaunched as the first ‘dark green’ pan-European residential ESG impact fund, has attracted a total of over €270 million in mandate commitments from Norway’s largest pension company KLP and a group of eight German pension funds and insurers. The new capital raise lifts CER III’s total equity to €750 million since its initial launch just two years ago. CER III is structured around Nassim Taleb’s pioneering antifragile investing concepts of Black Swan extreme random tail risk events and the alignment of stakeholder interests through ‘skin in the game.’

CATELLA AM Iberia has completed the acquisition of a €15 million student housing project in Seville, Spain for the Catella European Student Housing Fund II (CESHF II) which is managed by Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM).

Amsterdam/Munich September 14, 2021 - Dutch headquartered Orange Investment Managers (Orange IM) and Germany’s Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) have acquired a €49 million (DKK 365 million) underground car park in Odense beneath the central Thomas B. Thriges Gade (TBT) thoroughfare for the Catella Parken Europa Fund, which they jointly manage, from the city’s municipality. The proceeds of the sale will contribute to the financing of a new sustainable central urban district achieved by transforming the four-lane highway that split the heart of Denmark’s third largest city.

Catella Spain has published today the new Hotel Report 2021.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) and Munich-headquartered AIFM platform Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) have acquired two residential rental buildings, one in Dos Hermanas, Seville and the other in Ezcaba, Pamplona, for €12.6 million and €9 million respectively. The purchases were made for the fund Catella Wohnen Europe (CWE). Catella already has acquired properties for funds in these two locations and the properties will be locally managed by Catella Asset Management Iberia S.L. (Catella AM Iberia). The existing portfolio advised by Catella AM Iberia in Spain comprises 2,000 homes.

Can you imagine getting from Athens to Leipzig in 15 minutes? Ok, now that was a very curious introduction to our latest infographic. But if you know the fundamental principles of European urban development from an investor or financing point of view, then you will of course be familiar with the Athens Charter from 1933 and, of course, the Leipzig Charter since 2007. To put it more simply: from a car-friendly city to a “fair”, “green” and “productive” city. In addition, there is digitisation as a cross-sectional function - known as a SmartCity.

Catella and Elithis begin the first large-scale investment programme to de-carbonise Europe’s housing sector, the biggest contributor to EU carbon emissions, through the development of the world’s first energy-positive residential towers. By eliminating household energy bills through solar power self-sufficiency the energy-positive Elithis towers also offer real effective affordable rents, so directly linking and tackling the two greatest challenges of our times: climate change and social inequality. We teamed up with BBC StoryWorks to show what it is like to live in the first of these game changing homes, which are located in Strasbourg, France.View movie: BBC StoryWorks – Housing Europe – Elithis Tower Elithis-Catella Partnership Go to Linkedin: BBC StoryWorks Linkedin  

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) and the Munich-headquartered AIFM platform Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) have sold a Danish residential portfolio to a Swiss Life Asset Managers Germany fund for more than €70 million on behalf of the fund Catella European Residential (CER).

Catella Property Consultants GmbH has brokered a mixed-use property at Fangdieckstraße 70-74 in Hamburg-Eidelstedt on behalf of a private individual. The buyer is the HBB Group from Hamburg. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) has acquired two German residential developments in Hamburg and Dortmund from property developer Gröner Group GmbH on behalf of the Catella European Residential Fund III (CER III), bringing the total value of the Fund’s assets under management to more than €500 million. The CER III fund passed the half billion Euro AUM milestone, including approximately 30-35% leverage, within two years, after launching as a SICAV Luxembourg-registered investment vehicle with €50 million in seed capital in 2019.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) has acquired two residential properties in Copenhagen, Denmark on behalf of the Catella European Residential Fund III (CER III). The combined value of the deals is €62 million.

There is no question that the triumph of the residential asset class in Europe since 2015 is impressively reflected in the figures, in current surveys and forecasts: there is no end in sight for the time being.

Berlin-headquartered Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) and Munich-based Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG), as the German KVG investment platform, have purchased ‘Hi:Life’, an affordable rental residential complex in Aarhus, Denmark for the Catella Wohnen Europa (CWE) Fund for €85 million. The property was acquired from Europa Capital and Keystone Investment Management, selling on behalf of the Europa Fund V. This transaction increases the value of CWE’s total Danish portfolio to over €270 million. CRIM will manage the asset for CWE alongside the 400 Danish residential units it already manages for the fund.

Around 4 million square metres of additional logistics space demand is projected for the next 5 years, which is attributed to the booming e-commerce alone. Investors apparently are aware of this development and continue to focus on the dynamic growth trend in the management of information and goods flows. This can also be confirmed when looking at our thematic logistics map for Germany and Austria, which Catella has once again created in cooperation with IndustrialPort.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) and Munich-headquartered Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) have acquired four residential properties, including two in the micro and assisted living market segments, in Germany on behalf of the Catella Wohnen Europa (CWE) Fund. The combined value of the deals is in excess of €125 million and they all fall within the ‘affordable rents’ category.

The world’s first energy-positive residential development programme at scale is gaining momentum as Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) acquires its second Elithis Residential Tower project in Dijon, France, on behalf of an institutional mandate and steps up its investments in a planned €2.0 billion rollout of 100 towers across Europe.

One question is on the minds of almost all of us: is the housing market heading a longer-term peak? "After all, it just cannot go on forever like this," is an argument we often hear these days. Nevertheless, with our annual residential map on rents & yields in 81 locations, we rationally address this question and derive trend movements. 

Commerz Real has sold the commercial building Seltersweg 83-85 in Gießen to the local project developer and property owner Faber & Schnepp.

The Catella European Residential Fund III has acquired The Arches, a 184-residential unit Build to Rent (BTR) development in Leicester, CER III’s first deal in the UK, for c.£32 million (c.€37 million) from developer Watkin Jones. The scheme was purchased for the Fund by UK-based partner Catella APAM and Berlin-headquartered Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM).

Once again, Catella Research has analysed the commercial residential real estate markets in 61 cities and 19 countries in Europe. It is evident that even the current pandemic phase afflicting Europe has shown little change in its effects on the investor and transaction markets. Demand in the low interest rate environment remains very high.

No question: the Spanish economy is also suffering from the Corona pandemic. After a 5-year steady upswing, the past year was marked by a strong recession. However, a concerted effort by the government, trade unions and the business community succeeded in setting the economic framework that will lead to robust growth in 2021 and especially 2022.

It is interesting how quickly the market perspectives change. Whereas in 2016 many in the real estate market were still convinced that student housing was a locally anchored niche segment, in 2018 we were able to diagnose the establishment of an asset class. The number of transactions increasingly shifted into institutional, often pan-European hands, characterised by a strong increase in the inflow of funds.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (‘CRIM’) has acquired the Telegrafkollegiet student residence in Copenhagen for €45 million for the Catella European Student Housing Fund II (CESHF II). The acquisition follows a successful third capital raise in Q1 2021 which saw German institutional investors commit €40 million to the Fund. The latest acquisition increases the Fund’s assets under management to €170 million.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has secured additional capital commitments totalling €185 million from three new German pension fund clients, including NAEV, the retirement plan for medical professionals in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, for its Catella European Residential III fund (CER III). Total commitments for the CER III Fund since its launch in 2019 have now reached €475 million, of which €365 million was raised in the last 12 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first in a planned €2.0 billion investment programme of 100 ‘energy-positive ‘Elithis’ residential towers across Europe, aimed at providing affordable and sustainable homes, has been acquired in Saint-Etienne near Lyon in France, by the Catella European Residential Fund III (CER III). These projects will be delivered between 20-to-30 years ahead of the EU’s ambitious 2050 carbon-neutral timeline target for the built environment and already outperform Europe’s climate goals for cutting CO2 emissions.

There is hardly a survey among corporates on the market-changing topics of the future in which the topic of ESG is not placed among the TOP 3 - no matter in which country we are in Europe. Working groups that explore standards and market practices are springing up everywhere. Especially the aspect of capital flow into real estate vehicles or assets is of great interest here.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM) and Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) have acquired an affordable residential complex in Dos Hermanas, Seville for €17.5 million on behalf of the Catella Wohnen Europa (CWE) fund. The transaction will boost the volume of the fund’s Spanish portfolio to approximately €170 million. The property will be managed by Catella Asset Management Iberia S.L, which already has a portfolio of 1,700 units under management in Spain. The acquisition was made through CREAG’s AIFM platform.

We cannot look very far into the future with a precision landing, but we can analyse the past and the current situation, interpret it and derive recommendations for action from it. Above all, we can "price in" the current corona situation on the commercial real estate markets - you only have to talk to the corporates, landlords tenants and investors, and a robust picture will emerge of what will happen in the coming quarters. To put it in a nutshell: The German office markets are by no means immune, in view of the economic situation - but so far they have shown themselves to be largely crisis-resistant. Vacancies are rising only moderately; rents and purchase prices are holding steady.

Berlin, 15 March 2021, Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has acquired two residential properties in Berlin and Rostock for €30 million on behalf of one of Germany’s largest co-operative banks. The deals follow on from recent acquisitions for the mandate in Münster and Leipzig and are part of the bank’s investment programme to spend at least €300 million over the next two to three years in German residential real estate, with a focus on affordable housing.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has acquired a €50 million energy-efficient apartments complex project in Heidelberg, in one of the largest and most sustainable urban developments in Germany, on behalf of a separate mandate for a southern German pension fund. The investment will lift total assets managed for the mandate, structured as a German institutional ‘spezial’ fund to invest in four countries across Europe, to more than €800 million. The vendor was Kreer Development.

Munich-based investment manager Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) has acquired an office development in Luxembourg for the Sarasin Sustainable Properties - European Cities Fund (SSP) million from Lafayette S.A. The building is located in the emerging Howald office district and offers 8,000 sqm of lettable space. Upon completion in Q1 2021 it will be occupied by the Saint-Paul Luxembourg media group, now part of the Belgian Mediahuis Group, owner of e.g. the Luxembourger Wort, Luxembourg Times and Radio Latina, on a long-term lease.

After 12 months of pandemic, the office spaces in the 38 European locations we studied are suffering from below-average intensity of use. We assume that currently between Oulu and Madrid, between Dublin and Warsaw, only about 20% of the offices are regularly visited by employees on a weekly basis. Even more, a complete return to the office after the end of the pandemic seems less and less likely. 

There is no question that the asset class "retail" is under enormous restructuring pressure throughout Europe. Although the current downward trend was announced at the latest in the last decade and was only masked by the very good economic situation in the last few years, the current pandemic crisis clearly shows the breaking points. 

Munich, February 5th 2021 – Catella Real Estate AG – has completed the acquisition of an office property, located at 37-39 rue Crozatier, in Paris. The purchase was made on behalf of the Sarasin Sustainable Properties - European Cities fund (SSP), an institutional fund jointly managed by CREAG and Bank J. Safra Sarasin with Assets under Management of more than EUR 600 mil.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has purchased two residential properties in Leipzig and Münster for overall €30 million on behalf of one of Germany's largest cooperative banks. This is the first deal within a new €300 million mandate for CRIM from the bank, which will focus on investments in affordable housing.

Catella Property Consultants GmbH, the German investment consultancy of the Swedish Catella AB, starts the new year with a new partner. Unverzagt joins Catella Property Consultants GmbH with effect from January 1st 2021. 

Maastricht-based Catella Investment Management Benelux (CIMB) and Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) have acquired the ‘Project Twin’ residential complex in Osdorp, a suburb to the west of Amsterdam, from Heitman LLC, a global real estate investment management firm. The two 11-storey buildings – Tower I and III – are located by a canal and park on the Jan van Zutphenstraat and comprise 196 mid-range rental apartments spread over approximately 20,000 sqm, as well as 208 parking spaces. The properties were purchased on behalf of an institutional mandate, managed by CRIM. Financial details were not disclosed.