German real estate manager IVG Immobilien is not letting the ongoing sovereign debt crisis stand in the way of a good deal. Last year, at a time when many investors were reining in their spending, IVG powered ahead, tripling its transaction volume to EUR 2.25bn.
This year, the investment manager, which has around EUR 22bn of assets under management, is hoping to invest and divest at least as much again, Oliver Zimper, managing director of IVG Asset Management, IVG’s asset management arm, told Property EU.
'This year, we’d like to invest around EUR 1.5bn in markets such as Germany, Sweden, France and Poland. I’d love to invest 20% to 30% of this in retail assets, such as shopping centres in good locations as we really want to boost our retail assets but we want to be very selective.'
Zimper said Spain is now also on his watch list, despite the economic uncertainty. 'Pricing has come down a lot: capital values have fallen by around 40% since 2007, so it’s now possible to acquire prime offices at around EUR5,000 to EUR7,000 a square metre, down from up to EUR 14,000 a few years go. We think there might be a story there!'
The full interview appears in the January/February issue of PropertyEU Magazine. Click on the link below to subscribe | 
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