Warburg-HIH Invest, acting on behalf of a club deal mandate by four pension funds, has acquired the HBF 1 office property in Vienna, Austria. The multi-tenant building has a gross lettable area of 4,200m², of which 3,100m² are used as office accommodation. The restaurant operator Vapiano occupies a unit of 850m² on the ground floor. The asset was completed late last year and has been let in its entirety except for one remaining unit of 168m². The vendor is Rhomberg Bau. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“The relatively young office district next to the new central railway station has evolved into a sustainable premium location within a very short period of time,” said Sebastian Pende, Real Estate Manager at Warburg-HIH Invest Austria. “The submarket shows convincingly how tenant preferences have shifted toward extra flexibility and how rather inflexible office accommodation in the historic town centre is successively replaced by modern and efficient units in conveniently accessible locations.”
“Warburg-HIH Invest acquired an attractive property by choosing our modern office and commercial building. It enables us in turn to ensure the long-term success of our project,” said Irene Weidmann, Head of Real Estate at Rhomberg Bau.
“Since purchase price multiples and rents in Vienna are both subject to a narrow margin of fluctuation and since we are already in a rather late stage of the current real estate cycle, investments in office real estate in Vienna perfectly complement the core strategies of German superannuation schemes at the moment,” said Matthias Brodesser, Head of Transaction Management International at Warburg-HIH Invest. “So, it makes perfect sense for us to keep pursuing an acquisition and growth trajectory in this market.”
