Trio fund €577m Dutch resi deal

The first major portfolio acquisition of non-core Dutch housing association stock has been financed by Deutsche Hypo, ING Real Estate Finance and pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank with a €331m loan.

Patrizia’s €577m purchase of a portfolio of 137 residential apartment blocks located in the central and southern provinces of the Netherlands from housing association Vestia, agreed in July last year, marks the largest Dutch real estate deal of the past 12 months and one of the first examples of an investor extracting assets from a housing association as a result of recent policy relating to the deregulation of the residential market.

The lending consortium, led by Deutsche Hypo, saw the banks each take one third of the financing. For pbb, the transaction represented its first residential financing in the Netherlands. The banks acted out of their German offices, and all three have an existing relationship with Patrizia.

Terms of the financing were not disclosed but the loan amount relative to purchase price would reflect a loan to value ratio of 57%. Margins on debt in the Netherlands more than halved over the course of 2014 to stand at around 160 basis points for the best deals with conservative leverage.

The recovering Dutch market has attracted international capital and new lenders, especially within the residential sector and parts of the office market. Residential prices are stabilizing or going up again slightly and fundamentals are improving: there is said to be relatively little downside risk because there is a shortage of housing particularly in urban centres so vacancy rates are practically zero.

German-headquartered Patrizia earlier told Real Estate Capital it had received substantial interest from lenders for the deal.

In a statement today, Andreas Pohl, (pictured) board member at Deutsche Hypo: “The Dutch residential market has proved to be extremely stable for a number of years now. Thanks to birth surplus and immigration, the prognosis for population growth stands out positively against those of other EU states. Accordingly, we expect to see sustained high demand for residential space in the Netherlands”.