News and Press Releases

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.