Top Real Estate Investment Companies in Germany

Ofir Eyal Bar
4 min readNov 12, 2019

--

Germany continues to be 4th largest economy in the world, and given its size, some of the most important real estate companies are doing business there. If you are curious to find out what are some of the top companies operating there, here are 5 of them that are a standout.

Real estate in Germany
Source: corpocrat.com

CONSUS Real Estate

Based on a recent report issued by the European Research House Bulwiengesa, CONSUS Real Estate AG is one of the leading real estate developers in Germany’s top nine cities. According to the figures released in September 2018, the company holds and overall development portfolio with a GDV of €9.7 billion, comprising 2.2 million

, out of which more than 90% are located in the biggest German cities.

It has several projects (Hamburg Holstein and Stuttgart Vaihingen) dating beyond 2023, showing the long-term objectives are part of the company’s vision. Most of the projects are focused in Hamburg, Leipzig, Berlin, and Cologne, Munich, and Dresden. CONSUS is also operating a fully integrated development platform through two of its main subsidiaries.

Aspen Group

A publicly-traded real estate company, registered in the Israeli stock exchange, Aspen Group is another important entity that’s currently active on the German market. The group had over 30 years of experience in real estate and owns over 375,000 square meters of yielding properties, rented out to over 260 tenants, at approximately 95% occupancy.

Aspen Group is controlled by Ronnie Tsarum, Tsofit Harel is the current CEO and Ofir Eyal David is an important partner of the company. After securing a €50 million in Stuttgart during the first half the year, Aspen already hinted it is looking for other real estate investment opportunities in the country. The sold property covers 19.9 thousand square meters and was purchased back in 2014, in partnership with Shlomo Insurance Company, which currently holds 30% of the property company.

EW Immobilien Real Estate

This company has close to 15 years of experience in offering a full range of services related to searching, purchasing, and managing real estate in Germany. EW Real Estate had more than 2000 residential and 1500 commercial properties in its database, works with 23 well-established construction companies and 6 different German banks.

Since 2005 it has represented the interests of local owners as well as buyers around the world, offering its services in English for foreigners. With the head office located in the center of Berlin, EW Real Estate does not work with intermediaries and offers affordable mortgages rates.

Adler Real Estate AG

Currently one of the leading property companies in Germany, Adler Real Estate AG managed to grow rapidly over the past few years through significant acquisitions. One of the most important ones was the purchase of close to 70% of the shares in Brac Capital Properties. As of June 2019, the company owned more than 58,000 rental units and had approximately €5 billion in fair value of investment properties.

It is a publicly-traded company, currently listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Its main focus areas are in the Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, where Adler provides its tenants with the whole range of apartment-related services. Only in the first half of 2019, the company had €37.6 million in expenses for maintenance and modernization, showing its commitment towards providing the highest quality for its customers.

In September 2019, Adler Real Estate AG signed a merger agreement to acquire all shares in A.D.O. Group Ltd for €708 million, a transaction that will result in Adler holding a 33% stake in ADO Properties S.A.

Aroundtown SA

With a focus on income-generating and quality properties located in top tier European cities (primarily in Germany and The Netherlands), Aroundtown SA is a major real estate company that invests in commercial and residential operations, benefiting from strong fundamentals and growth prospects.

Its business model is focused around picking high-quality and cash-generating properties with upside potential in rent or occupancy increase. Aroundtown has intensive property management (that includes operational and repositioning activities) and constantly manages to create secure and strong cash flows.

Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Benelux are the main cities where the company owns properties. During the first half of 2019, Aroundtown managed to secure €1.2 billion in signed deals, placing it around the biggest real estate companies operating in Germany.

The investment properties are estimated at around €16.2 billion and cover 6.6 million square meters, when it comes to the commercial portfolio as of June 2019. The residential portfolio, on the other hand, is estimated at €7.6 billion and covers 5.1 million square meters. It is the largest listed commercial real estate company in Germany and the second-largest listed offices by market cap in Europe. High cash and liquid assets balances enable the company to pursue attractive acquisitions on a constant basis.

--

--

Ofir Eyal Bar

A successful businessman, digital marketing entrepreneur and Real Estate investor.