Europa Capital, acting in partnership with Keystone Investment Management has sold of the Hi:Life residential scheme in Aarhus, Denmark, on behalf of its pan-European value-add fund, Europa Fund V, for €85m. The purchaser is the Catella Wohnen Europa Fund. Europa Capital and Keystone forward funded the development of the 17,600m² projects, which opened in 2020. The building, which is fully leased, comprises 234 one to three-bedroom apartments with communal roof terraces, which are let at affordable rents, as well as a restaurant unit. The building is designed to be energy efficient, with solar panels on the roof. Hi:Life is located in Christiansbjerg, the northern district of Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. The asset benefits from strong transport connections, including the local tram and bus services, which provide access to the city centre.
Jason Oram, Partner & Fund Manager at Europa Capital, commented: “Having established a significant amount of experience in the residential market in Copenhagen, we recognised that investor appetite would soon expand to other mature cities within Denmark, such as Aarhus, which also offer favourable demand/supply dynamics.”
Hugo Black, Partner at Europa Capital, added: “This sale, at a very good yield for the Aarhus residential market, reflects the delivery of our asset management strategy to produce an asset with strong environmental credentials and generate an attractive return for our investors. On completion of the development, we were able to let up the building quickly, demonstrating the ongoing strong demand for affordable housing which we are seeing across Europe’s major cities.”
Morten Schultz, Partner at Keystone Investment Management, commented: “This is another success for our now longstanding partnership with Europa Capital. Identifying the right locations is only part of our joint success. Small flats lodged in between the University of Aarhus and the new super hospital has unsurprisingly proven to be very attractive. The other part of our success here was ensuring Hi:Life provided a high quality of living which has enabled us to enhance the net operating income by 15% over a nine-month period subsequent to project completion.”
