The listed Austrian real estate company IMMOFINANZ AG has substantially broadened its logistics activities in Germany and in Switzerland. With the acquisition of altogether six logistics centres with usable space totalling 175,000 m², the subsidiary Deutsche Lagerhaus has increased its portfolio to 26 properties at 722,840 m². Parallel to the expansion of the portfolio, IMMOFINANZ has also increased its stake in Deutsche Lagerhaus and now holds 90 percent of the stakes.

Of the new properties four are located in Germany and two in Switzerland. The biggest investment in Germany is a logistics centre in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Bönen totalling 52,740 m² of usable space. In Switzerland the Bülach logistics centre near the Zurich Airport is the new “flagship” of Deutsche Lagerhaus at 61,743 m². All the properties are let in full, in part to international freight companies and in part to large retail chains.

Thus, IMMOFINANZ has taken a major step toward its goal of developing a portfolio with total usable space of one million m² at Deutsche Lagerhaus by the latest in 2009. As several other acquisitions are about to be wrapped up, real estate assets are likely to grow this year to approx. 900,000 m².

“While German real estate prices have already risen strongly in the areas of office, retail and residential and now are no longer particularly attractive for investors, prices for logistics real estate have trailed and realisable yields are considerably higher than in other market segments,” says IMMOFINANZ Chairman Karl Petrikovics. “For this reason we are going to increase our pace of growth in the area of logistics even more in order to fully profit from the decline in yields expected in the short term and the price increase related to this.”

In addition to Deutsche Lagerhaus, IMMOFINANZ has numerous other logistics properties which are held either directly or in company shareholdings. In the overall portfolio of IMMOFINANZ, logistics has reached a share of 15 percent.

In Germany the company is represented with a diversified portfolio including 113 properties and 1.8 million m² of usable space. The focal point of new investments lies in multifunctional urban development projects in addition to logistics. In Switzerland IMMOFINANZ has six properties with 152,000 m². Apart from the Grand Hotel de Bains in St. Moritz, these are exclusively logistics properties.