Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund IV International and German property company Corpus Immobiliengruppe have jointly bought a €2.1bn housing portfolio from German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp.
The two companies acquired a portfolio of 48,000 residential units in the Rhein-Ruhr area and have taken on 370 staff in the process. “Germany is one of the main strategic areas of focus for our pan-European group,” said Stéphane Theuriau, managing director of Morgan Stanley’s European Real Estate Investing Group.
He added that the company is committed to building a leading residential real estate platform together with Corpus.
This summer has seen a spate of large residential sales in Germany as cash-strapped public bodies and companies try and raise cash. US investors are particularly interested in the residential portfolios. The wave of deals started when Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall fund and financial services company Cerberus bought GSW, a Berlin housing and building corporation owning 65,700 flats, from the state for €1.97bn at the end of May. Then in July, fellow US investor Fortress paid €3.5bn for the Gagfah housing corporation, which owns 76,000 flats.
