Corestate wants to expand its Swiss business

Real estate investor Corestate plans to double its assets under management in Switzerland to five billion euros (about CHF 5.5 billion) in the next five years. This was said by the company's CEO Lars Schnidrig in an interview with the news agency Reuters. Currently, Corestate in Switzerland stands at 2.2 billion, and in total the company manages assets worth 26 billion.

Until now, Corestate has almost exclusively catered to the super-rich and family offices in Germany, but according to Schnidrig, the company now also wants to target institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers. Corestate has already made this shift in Germany.

Money that Corestate acquires in Switzerland should preferably also be invested locally. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find real estate projects in Switzerland that meet investors' return expectations, Schnidrig said. Therefore, the company also wants to offer cross-border transactions, especially Germany is attractive. Pension funds are looking for annual returns of at least 3%; Corestate holds out the prospect of returns of 3.5% to 4%.

More than half of Corestate's portfolio is made up of residential properties, it adds. This also includes the micro-living offer, i.e. student and business apartments. The other half is divided between offices and retail properties on shopping streets in German B-cities.

Since October, Corestate has been building what the company claims is the country's largest so-called micro-living project, the Aparthotel Joyn with 343 apartments and 104 rooms, in Glattpark in Opfikon near Zurich. The new building is scheduled for completion next year. Houses of the brand exist so far in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna.  (ah)