Within three months of opening and starting-up the first properties, Alta Fides AG sold a major share of the student apartments the company is marketing under the name of YOUNIQ to private and institutional investors.
The first construction stage of the listed YOUNIQ property in Erlangen completed in April 2009 and including 99 high-end equipment studios and two-bedroom apartments was acquired by an institutional investor. It was agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
The second construction stage of YOUNIQ Erlangen, consisting of another 94 units, has already been sold to private capital investors at a mean price of €3,000.00/m², and this with the completion still a year away. The 100 units of the listed YOUNIQ property in Leipzig were also sold to individual private investors for the price of €2,800.00/m²,. Moreover, sales of the second construction stage of the Leipzig property are well underway, the current pre-marketing rate being 75%.
"The swift sale of the YOUNIQ properties, particularly in regard to the present economic environment, confirms the probity of our strategy of establishing a niche product with high chances of success on the real estate market," said Rudolf Bartsch, Member of the Board at Alta Fides AG, as he elaborated on the company's success.
"YOUNIQ and the student-living segment enable private and institutional investors to generate stable cash flows from demand of the sort that is more or less independent of economic cycles. In addition, the periodic turnover of tenants, paced by the average three-year degree programmes, permits a regular adjustment of rents to reflect the current market standard."
Bartsch went on to say that the product is equally interesting to institutional and private investors. He added the Alta Fides AG will seek to sell a part of its newly developed project to end investors or private investors.
According to survey conducted by King Sturge and Ernst & Young, the need for student housing will increase sharply in the coming years because of demographically strong graduating secondary-school classes, and the elimination of the last year of secondary school in Germany. Most campus towns report a shortage of apartments as it is, with student unions estimating the current demand for additional apartments to come to no less than 20,000.
"Our sales show that Alta Fides AG has established itself with a major head-start as market leader in the asset class of student living. We will keep expanding this successful market position by investing in other locations with a high demand for student housing," Bartsch emphasised.
In addition to the projects in Greifswald, Erlangen, and Leipzig now in the marketing phase with more than 500 residential units, new projects with an investors volume of more than €200 million be realized in Karlsruhe, Munich, and other West German locations in 2009 and 2010. For the years after 2010, the company is planning to complete between 1,500 and 2,500 residential units annually.
Source: Business Network Marketing- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
