NREP has completed its first real estate investment in Germany and established a dedicated team of eight employees in Frankfurt and Munich to lead its activity in the country.
For its debut investment, NREP acquired two co-living assets offering 314 apartments for an undisclosed price alongside joint venture partner Artist Group, with whom it intends to deliver 5,000 co-living apartments by 2025.
One of the assets is located in close proximity to the new business district Mediaspree in Berlin and will be completed in 2024. The second asset is an office-to-residential conversion centrally located in Essen.
All properties will be operated under Artisa’s established co-living platform, CityPop, offering fully furnished apartments with communal facilities on flexible lease terms.
Alain Artioli, president of Artisa Group, said: “The undersupplied housing sector in Germany is partly driven by having one of the highest shares of single households in Europe, which is expected to further increase to 44% by 2035. CityPop’s consumer-orientated concept is enhanced by a digital app, with significant emphasis placed on resident events and activities to create a strong sense of community, connectedness and social interaction. Each building offers vibrant living spaces alongside a comprehensive suite of on-demand services and facilities, with convenient access to public transportation.”
Jani Nokkanen, real estate CIO at NREP, added: “Almost 80% of inhabitants in larger German cities rent their homes, yet there remains a significant supply-demand imbalance for high quality accommodation in well-connected urban areas. We have identified where these pressures are most acutely felt and see an immediate opportunity to apply NREP’s proven perspectives on livability, sustainability, customer-centricity and urban design to the German market, innovatively packaged through City Pop’s co-living concept.”
Over the next three years, NREP intends to invest circa €500m in modern logistics and ‘customer-centric rental housing’ assets in Germany.
Rune Kock, Real Estate CEO at NREP, explained: “Germany has Europe’s strongest economy and presents clear trends of urbanisation, which makes it particularly receptive to NREP’s expertise in improving the built environment of cities. We have capabilities to create more customer-oriented products and implement ESG initiatives more broadly, which has proved a successful approach when expanding into new Northern European territories.”
