Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) has invested in an Australian office tower through Global Investors and Universal-Investment.
The German pension fund for self-employed professionals bought the South Wharf office tower in Melbourne.
CBRE GI, which was awarded a global mandate by BVK in late 2013, said the deal was the manager鈥檚 first direct deal in Australia, having made indirect investments through CBRE Clarion Securities and CBRE Global Investment Partners.
Open-ended real estate fund Deka-Immobilien Global sold the property for an undisclosed amount.
Andrew Glass, managing director of CBRE Global Investors in Australia, said client demand to invest in Australia 鈥渃ontinues to be strong, consistent with our research view that domestic real estate markets will outperform on a global, risk-adjusted basis鈥�.
The 21,000sqm building, part of a larger mixed-use project, is fully occupied. Immobilien bought the property in 2010.
Alexander Tannenbaum, managing director at Universal-Investment, said German institutional investors are 鈥漵till internationalising their real estate allocations鈥�.
鈥淭he Asian Pacific area is next to US, currently one of the preferred real estate markets abroad,鈥� he said, stressing that around 40% of the roughly 鈧�4.5bn in real estate assets administered through Universal-Investment鈥檚 platform are outside Germany.
LaSalle Investment Management bought for BVK in Australia for the first time , investing in a shopping centre in Melbourne for BVK, which awarded a 鈧�500m global real estate mandate to in 2013.
