Third Brussels investment for DIFA

Third Brussels investment for DIFA

On 30 April 2002, Hamburg-based DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG acquired three office buildings near Brussels airport for its DIFA-GRUND retail fund. Named Davos, Elsinore and Figueras after places linked with famous artists, the buildings form part of the Corporate Village development comprising six office buildings, a 4-star hotel and a service centre, all grouped around a public park. Kohn Pedderson Fox and Jaspers are architects for the project.

The first two buildings are nearing completion, while the third is due to be completed by mid-2003. Together they will offer around 30,000 squares metres of office space, 50 per cent of which has already been let – proof of the location’s appeal, with its excellent transport links and proximity to the airport.

“Its central situation and the language skills of the city’s residents make Brussels a truly European investment location,” explains Dr. Reinhard Kutscher, the DIFA board member whose responsibilities include property business outside Germany. “This is an important factor for international tenants. Due to its first-class transport links the Corporate Village offers these companies the ideal platform for their European operations.”

Last year the Hamburg-based specialist investment institution for open-ended real estate funds – part of the Union Investment Group – acquired two properties in the Belgian capital for its DIFA Fund No. 1 in the shape of the Mondrian office project and the Radisson SAS Hotel. Demand for office space in Brussels has been generally strong for many years, with rising demand from both the Belgian authorities and the European Union acting as a stabilising influence on the market.

Belgium is DIFA’s fifth investment location outside Germany after the USA, the UK, France and Spain. This investment of around 90 million euros boosts the property assets of the DIFA-Grund fund outside Germany to just under 30 per cent.

Press contact:

DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG

Public Relations

Dr. Susanne Kaschub

Caffamacherreihe 8, 20355 Hamburg, Germany

Tel: +49 40 3491 9139, Fax: +49 40 3491 9190

E-mail: susanne.kaschub@difa.de; www.difa.de