Le mie ricette per la real estate communityUnion Investment let or relet a total of 1.1 million square metres of commercial real estate space in 2019. That corresponds to an increase of around 30 per cent on the previous year and represents approximately 14 per cent of the space currently under management. At around 66 per cent, the majority of the lettings related to properties in Germany. Other European locations accounted for 24 per cent, while non-European properties made up roughly 10 per cent of total lettings. From a fund perspective, the new lettings and renewals represent annual net rent of around EUR 263 million. The overall occupancy rate across all actively managed real estate funds, based on income, is 96.8 per cent.
“We let around 1.1 million square metres out of the approximately 7.7 million square metres of commercial real estate space held in the portfolio, thanks to excellent teamwork. Arranging lease renewals and follow-on leases often involves just as much effort as new lettings, and in most cases we succeeded in increasing the profitability of the properties through successful letting. We have thus once again delivered for our investors in a highly impressive manner,” said Volker Noack, a member of the management team at Union Investment Real Estate GmbH. New lettings account for around 22 per cent of the overall total for 2019, corresponding to 243,000 sq m of commercial real estate space.
New lettings in the German office portfolio
Due to the extremely high occupancy rate in the German office property
portfolio, new lettings tended to be minimal here. The 4,100 sq m of
space let in H19 in Düsseldorf was the largest single letting. Also
particularly noteworthy are the new lettings in the
Munich region. The three office properties Maximilian 35, Park.Gate and
IT-Port in Unterschleißheim each account for new lettings of between
2,200 and 2,800 sq m. Looking at the DACH region as a whole, important
new lettings here included some 4,000 sq m of
space at Euro Plaza 4 in Vienna.
Key results in international office markets
New lettings activity was also exceptionally high in France, where some
43,000 sq m of new lettings represent a rate of nearly 74 per cent. The
main drivers were the two newly completed development projects Grand
Central Paris Saint-Lazare and EKLA Business
in Lille, which together contributed around 31,000 sq m of new
lettings. The biggest new lettings in the non-European markets are
attributable to the 111 South Wacker office property in Chicago, with
some 4,900 sq m, and the Shibuya Prime Plaza office building
in Tokyo, with around 2,900 sq m. Another highlight is the letting of
approximately 30,000 sq m at 555 Mission Street in San Francisco. Here
it proved possible to retain existing tenants Deloitte and DLA Piper,
among other successes.
New lettings in the retail portfolio
New lettings of Union Investment’s retail properties in 2019 were mainly
associated with major initiatives undertaken as part of active
portfolio management. This is particularly true of Riem Arcaden in
Munich, with new lettings of 8,800 sq m following recent
expansion of the complex, Wandsbek Quarrée in Hamburg, with new
lettings of around 8,000 sq m, and Rhein-Galerie in Ludwigshafen, where
some 3,200 sq m were newly let. Also notable is the letting of around
4,500 sq m of space in the Rheinpark Center in Neuss,
near Düsseldorf. In terms of international retail holdings, two
examples can be cited in the context of the ongoing development of the
Manufaktura shopping centre in Lodz, Poland, with some 4,100 sq m of new
lettings, and the K shopping centre in Kortrijk,
Belgium, with around 2,000 sq m.
Logistics and hotels make significant contribution
Logistics and hotel properties made an exceptionally strong contribution
to the lettings figures in 2019. Overall, Union Investment let or relet
some 248,000 sq m of space in six logistics properties in Germany. In
the hotel segment, 83,000 sq m were let, driven
in particular by the successful 30-year lease extension for the
InterContinental Berlin.
Source : Company