Real Invest Austria hopes to achieve continued success in 2011
- Real Invest Austria real estate fund has over EUR 1.5 billion under management
- The market leader in Austria generated around EUR 300 million in new customer funds in 2010, interest still high among investors
- Outlook for 2011: New investments amounting to roughly EUR 300 million planned
Real Invest Austria, the market leader among Austria's real estate investment funds, hopes to achieve the same impressive development as in the previous year again in 2011. Last year, Bank Austria Real Invest's fund flagship gained around EUR 300 million in new customer funds. This extremely positive development has persisted in the initial months of 2011 as well. As of the end of February, the net influx of capital amounted to EUR 33 million. This puts Real Invest Austria's current total volume of funds under management at around EUR 1.54 billion.
According to Gerhard Dreyer, the spokesman for Bank Austria Real Invest's management, "Real Invest Austria is a very conservative product for private investors. The fund invests solely in Austrian properties with stable values, with a focus on the residential and infrastructure segments. The balanced portfolio also includes selected office and commercial properties. It seems that investors appreciate this stable, sustainable investment strategy."
Further investments planned
As of the end of February 2011, Real Invest Austria's funds are invested in 83 properties, all of which are located in Austria. The latest property added to Real Invest Austria's balanced portfolio is at Dr. Bohrgasse 9 in Vienna's third district. The property was built in 1989 and is located at Campus Vienna Biocenter, currently Vienna's largest biotechnology location. The building, which contains offices and laboratories and offers 17,300 square metres of floor space, is currently occupied by the University of Vienna.
In an investment offensive last year, Real Invest Austria added several properties to its portfolio worth a total of around EUR 400 million, and purchases are also planned for 2011.
According to Dreyer, "As in past years, the investment volume will depend a lot on the influx of capital. As of now, we anticipate roughly EUR 300 million in new investments. We will stick to our proven investment strategy when it comes to the type of buildings we purchase: The focus will remain on the residential and infrastructure segments in the future."
Good market development in Austria
The demand for stable investments in tangible assets seems to be holding strong in Austria, especially as a result of the rise in inflation. This has benefited Austrian real estate funds as well, which have generally seen very positive development in recent months. The Austrian market differs from the German market in this regard. In order to have a positive influence on this development over the long term, the industry has been considering possible legal changes for some time now.
"We support the efforts of the industry representative, the Association of Austrian Investment Companies (Vereinigung Österreichischer Investmentgesellschaften, VÖIG), when it comes to fair legal regulations for institutional investors, including, for example, commitment periods for higher investment amounts. This may help to prevent any surprising outflows of large volumes and the associated liquidity bottlenecks for funds in the future," concluded Dreyer.
Real Invest Austria is the number one
Real Invest Austria1 pursues a stable investment strategy, investing only in Austrian properties. Residential and infrastructure properties such as schools and nurseries comprise some 60 per cent of the fund assets. Real Invest Austria is denominated in EUR 10 units, and with a current total volume of around EUR 1.54 billion and a market share of 61.67 per cent (source: Association of Austrian Investment Companies [VÖIG] as of 28 February 2011), it is the undisputed market leader in the open real estate fund segment. Bank Austria Real Invest is the real estate investment specialist for Bank Austria, a member of UniCredit.
Enquiries: Bank Austria Real Invest GmbH
Gerhard Dreyer, Chairman of the Management Board
Tel. +43 (0)1 33171-75150
1 The published complete and simplified prospectuses for this fund in their currently amended versions, including all amendments since their initial publication (in Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung on 20 November 2003), are available free of charge at www.realinvest.at and at Bank Austria Real Invest Immobilien-Kapitalanlage GmbH, Lassallestraße 5, A-1020 Vienna.
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