Bahnhof Altona Photo: www.gleis4.de/html/hamburg_32.html

CMC Capital, the Cork-based wealth management and property investment division of Crowley & McCarthy Chartered Accountants, has announced the completion of a €65 million property deal to purchase a well-known shopping centre in Hamburg, Germany.  The Bahnhof Altona shopping centre is situated in a prime location at the city’s Altona rail station, which is used by 100,000 city commuters every day. 

The northern port city of Hamburg, with a population of 1.8m, is one of Germany’s most prosperous. This shopping centre, with a total area of 15,850 square metres, has a mix of leading retail chains, an expansive food court, and 500 multi-storey car parking spaces.  The initial yield from the shopping centre is 6%. The investment has been made on behalf of CMC Capital’s German Commercial Property Syndicate clients. 

“We are pleased to have acquired such a prestigious property for our investors,” said Richard Kingston, Director of CMC Capital.  “The property contributes to the positive cash flows of the syndicate thanks to the relatively high yield, and it also has excellent capital appreciation prospects.”

“The shopping centre has a very high footfall level resulting from its location adjacent to the Altona rail station. This ensures a steady stream of customers for the centre. We anticipate that its value will grow as the Germany economy recovers and retail rents increase. We believe that this purchase will deliver a great medium term return for our investors,” he added.

Since calling for investors’ funds in March, there has been a 20% return earned on the CMC syndicate investments. The average rental yield of the property portfolio is over 7%. Other properties acquired include the €16.5 million Lechland Shopping Centre in Landsberg near Munich, a retail and office property in the main square of Leipzig valued at €12.8 million, a €20 million retail centre in Ingolstadt, a retail and office building in Berlin which was purchased for €11.1 million, and an office property in Stuttgart purchased for €5.15m. CMC implements an active management strategy on all properties acquired, to add to the rental income and the value of the properties.

“The strength of our syndicates is that by pooling the financial resources of the individual investors, we can invest in high quality commercial properties throughout Germany’s top cities. All of the investments are well located and pre-let to blue chip tenants, generating secure rental yields”. Mr. Kingston concluded.

There are typically between 150 to 200 investors in each syndicate structured by CMC, with each syndicate investing in approximately €100m worth of commercial property.

CMC are also expected to shortly announce details of their next German property syndicate and national roadshow.  

Headquartered in Clonakilty, CMC has offices in Dublin and Cork. The firm has been engaged in the German market since 2004, when their extensive market research showed this was a prime investment location. Since that time, CMC has successfully sourced and purchased over €250m worth of German commercial property for syndicate and private client investors.