Austrian real estate company SIGNA has acquired five leading properties from RFR, setting a record for the year 2017. The portfolio is worth as much as €1.5 billion and is the largest real estate transaction in Germany this year. The portfolio includes numerous offices and retail properties in A1 locations in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
The portfolio consists of the Upper West tower with mainly shops and offices located in Berlin, shopping centres Kaufmannshaus and Alsterkaden in Hamburg, the Upper Zeit shopping centre being developed in Frankfurt and the remaining part of the Karstadt department store in Munich railway station. SIGNA already owned part of the Karstadt department store and now owns the entire building. This department store is a major rival to Hudson's Bay's Kaufhof, in which SIGNA has already expressed interest.
In early October, the iconic Sony Center building complex was also sold for €1.1 billion to two institutional investors from America. This was one of the most valuable real estate transactions in Berlin. Since 2010, the building complex had been owned by South Korea's national pension fund. At the time, the fund bought the Sony complex for 585 million euros.