Bouwfonds Real Estate Investment Management plans to launch a second European parking fund for institutional investors in the first quarter of 2011. Bouwfonds European Real Estate Parking Fund II will invest in a diversified pan-European portfolio of prime car parks. The target size of the fund will be EUR 500 mln of equity, which will be raised in several closings. The term of the fund will be 10 years.

'Car parks offer great investment opportunities', said Ruud Roosen, director of Parking Fund II. 'Over the last five years, car park investments have outperformed the general real estate segments. Despite the economic downturn they generated solid returns. Car park investments offer stable and secured cash flows with long-term leases. In our Parking Fund I, for example, the average term of the leases is approximately 20 years.'

The fund will target investments with a value of at least EUR 10 mln. Key investment areas are the Eurozone, Scandinavia and the UK.

Bouwfonds REIM's first European parking fund is currently fully invested and has a projected return of more than 9%.