RREEF Real Estate, the real estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank's asset management division, is planning to invest around EUR 650 mln in real estate for its open-ended grundbesitz europa fund over the next 12 months, Ulrich Steinmetz, managing director of RREEF Germany, told PropertyEU.

'Our grundbesitz europa fund has around 29% liquidity, or EUR 1 bn. We would like to invest most of this - about EUR 650 mln - over the next year,' he said.

RREEF is targeting real estate opportunities in Germany, Northern Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic as well as selective investments in France and the UK, Steinmetz added.

Earlier this week, RREEF acquired the Sigma building in Paris's Zac des Docks de Saint-Ouen from the Generali Group for EUR 98.7 mln, reflecting an initial yield of 6.67%. The office building, which comprises 18,000 m2 of space, is not in the city centre, hence the higher yield, Steinmetz said. Office yields in central Paris are typically around 5%, or even less.

'Paris is one of our target markets. The Sigma building was a good investment because it’s a very modern building in a good location with good transport links, as well as a long-term lease,' Steinmetz said.

RREEF Real Estate has already invested EUR 209 mln in France so far this year. It had EUR 43.6 bn of assets under management at end-September 2011.