Transforming German open-ended real estate funds (GOEFS) into listed vehicles is the only way of boosting their liquidity and achieving a bigger and well-functioning market in Germany, Olivier Elamine, CEO of Alstria Office REIT, told PropertyEU.
Pointing to other countries which similarly had large open-ended fund markets and witnessed a transformation to a listed market such as the Netherlands and Australia, he said that this ultimately had resulted in a bigger real estate sector. 'In every country across the globe which ever had an open-ended fund structure, things always ended up in the same way, namely in liquidity problems and conversion to listed companies.'
Elamine is one of the speakers who will join a panel entitled 'Unlock Germany: what can we do?' at the annual conference of the European Public Real Estate Association in London this week. Elamine also noted that sentiment in relation to Germany's EUR 100 bn GOEF industry is shifting following a redemption crisis that has left funds with EUR 24 bn of AUM closed for redemptions.
EPRA has made increasing the size of the German listed sector one of its main goals. The handful of listed property companies in Germany currently account for about 1.6% of the underlying real estate market, compared to 6% in France and 4.2% in the UK. The European average is 3%.
A preview of the panel discussion appears in the September edition of PropertyEU. Click on the link below to subscribe | 
.jpg)
