IVG has acquired its fifth property within 18 months for the IVG Warsaw Fund – the office and retail property "Le Palais".

The six-storey, extensively renovated historic building with approximately 5,300 square metres of office space and 1,400 square metres of retail space has already been let mainly to a number of international users shortly after its completion.

Its core tenant is the listed financial services provider Ipopema. The property matches the core purchase profile of the IVG Warsaw Fund in terms of both its city centre location and construction quality and its fittings. The seller of the property is Warimpex. The parties involved have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

"The real estate market in Warsaw continues to offer outstanding opportunities for investors. In particular mixed-use properties in prime locations around the Palace of Culture and Science in the centre of Warsaw, such as Le Palais, generate risk-weighted returns that are 1.5 percentage points higher than comparable properties in Western Europe. Successful acquisitions of such sought-after properties in an increasingly tight market depend on local expertise and good networks, which we can cover well with our international IVG investment and asset management platform,” says Bernhard Berg, chairman of IVG Institutional Funds.

To date, IVG has invested a total of EUR110m in Poland's capital city for the IVG Warsaw Fund alone. By the end of the year, the specialised fund placed in October 2012 is to be fully invested. This corresponds to a total investment volume of approximately EUR200m. Investors in the IVG Warsaw Fund include a German insurance company, a German pension fund and an institutional investor from Austria. The IVG branches in Vienna and Warsaw are responsible for the fund and asset management.