perspective
Real estate investors
Real estate investors spread their exposure to the various real estate asset classes according to the economic outlook and their risk/return profile. In recent years, a growing number of foreign investors have ventured into the Dutch housing market, both institutional and privately owned. We see new players seeking to get a foot in the door – not just for commercial property or free-market housing, but also for social housing and public real estate. Within her broad network Barbette receives multiple requests from investors for existing and new housing as well as transformation opportunities.
Barbette de Graaf is delighted to welcome foreign real estate investors into the Netherlands. She cut her teeth in the mid-1990s as commercial manager for foreign investors in Dutch real estate when she was working at the British listed company Herring Baker Harris and later at Catella (part of the IKEA Group). Since 2014 Barbette has facilitated transactions between housing associations and foreign investors, including the sale of portfolios and individual properties to a US family fund (QSP ltd) and German institutional investors (WPI and Panta Rhei).
“Many residential investors genuinely care for their tenants and their homes, even though they are perceived as being purely profit-driven. But one need not exclude the other. This aspect needs to be given more attention if we want to expand the mid-rental segment in the Netherlands, also among market parties.”