KGAL is a leading, independent investment and asset manager with an investment volume of €16.0bn. The firm’s focus is on long-term capital investments for institutional investors in real estate, sustainable infrastructure and transportation.
KGAL offers a full-service investment management platform for its institutional investors across its key markets and sectors. The firm draws on over 55 years of real assets experience, its proven track record and extensive in-house teams focused on transactions, portfolio and asset management.
KGAL has been active in the real estate market since the company was founded in 1968. To date, it has acquired real estate in individual or portfolio transactions for more than €20bn. In the real estate sector, KGAL focuses on offices, retail and mixed use and residential.
In addition to its headquarters in Grünwald (near Munich), KGAL maintains local teams in its offices in London, Vienna and Ljubljana.
Sector forecasts
OFFICE: In the light of mobile and flexible working, our understanding of office locations and how we are working is changing. In the medium term, take-up will be subdued because of the economic uncertainty of many tenants. Therefore, vacancies in many European markets will increase, but not on the same level as we saw in the last economic downturn. We believe that modern buildings in the right walkable location will see further moderate rental increases, but outdated offices in secondary locations will come under pressure. We strongly believe that mobile working is not the end of office building and that the current negative perception of the real estate sector is more driven by the media than by reality. Anyway, investors have to consider the consequences of the mobile working trend in their strategies.
RESIDENTIAL: Residential investment has been proven as a stable investment, not only during the pandemic. The demographic development and suburbanisation are tailwinds for many residential markets. Therefore, we are expecting, in the medium term, that the competition in this sector will bring prices further up and that the risk/return profile is getting increasingly challenging for investors. Because of the high attention and the increasing liquidity, more markets are getting professional and transparent.
RETAIL: Apart from some niche sectors (ie, local/regional food retailers), stationary retail is not on the short list of institutional investors. During the last market downturn, the retail sector has proven as resilient and providing stability for real estate portfolios. Today, after years of struggling and losing market share to the dynamic online retail, shopping centres and high-street shops are not in favour with the investment market. Poor cash flows of many retailers translate into downward pressure on real estate values. However, in the long run, lower values and lower rents will offer opportunities for new retailers and new store concepts. In contrast to retail high-street shops and shopping centres, well-located retail parks with the right mix and local/regional food retailers are experiencing strong demand. With yield under (moderate) downward pressure and stable or increasing rents they are providing a positive return for owners. However, local knowledge and the right tenants for the location are key for success in this niche sector.
Investment principles & strategy
In KGAL’s real estate investments, location quality and sustainability are top priorities, consistent with our focus on being a reliable, long-term partner for our clients. KGAL has been at home in the three major asset classes of office, retail and residential for decades. In addition, we see up-and-coming alternatives such as inner-city district developments, and mixed-use properties with healthcare, education and student housing as investments with a promising future. As the foundation of our investment activity, we analyse long-term trends in the areas of work, traffic and consumption and their effects on the built environment.
Strategic corporate development
KGAL’s strategy for the coming years envisages a further expansion of vertical value creation, including project developments, as well as the further strengthening of our Europe-wide activities.
In addition to focused portfolio and asset management, we aim to provide a full range of real estate services to the properties we manage on behalf of our clients. Consequently, in addition to our real estate investment specialists, we will continue to leverage our own research, engineers and architects in the acquisition and operation of assets.
The KGAL real estate team is already active in 10 European countries. We continue to emphasise the importance for each country team to comprise the necessary skills, country-specific experience and knowledge as the share of international investments grows in the coming years.
COMPLIANCE STATEMENT
The stated information is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by KGAL (“KGAL, KGAL Investment Management or KGAL Group”) and while KGAL endeavours to keep the information up to date and correct, KGAL makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, sustainability and availability with respect to the presentation or the information, products, services, or related graphics etc. contained in the presentation for any purpose.
