Sabine Künzinger is to take over as managing director of Patrizia, the German listed property company and fund manager, in November. The moves follows on from the company's shift from being predominantly a residential property player to one that embraces the 'twin pillars' of residential and commercial.

Earlier this year Patrizia expanded its commercial property portfolio to EUR 3 bn with the acquisition of LB Immo Invest. Patrizia has a EUR 2 bn residential property portfolio.

Künzinger will succeed managing director Torsten Wesch who steps down at the end of October.

Künzinger has spent the past five years managing Patrizia's central accounting and tax department. She previously spent 13 years working for a fund company, including seven years as managing director. In May 2011, she became general manager in Hamburg and from November 2011 she will take over the management together with Martin Lemke.

The Augsburg-company company also announced on Tuesday that it has changed its full title from Patrizia Immobilien KAG to PatriziA Wohninvest KAG to reflect the new residential and commercial property strategy. Hamburg-based LB Immo is being rebranded as Patrizia GewerbeInvest.

'Patrizia is committing itself to its further development to become a fully integrated real estate investment house with the two pillars residential and commercial real estate,' said Patrizia CEO Wolfgang Egger.