Merlin has €1Bn to invest in Portuguese property

The Spanish SOCIMI (REIT) Merlin is seeking to invest up to €1Bn in Portuguese real estate assets.
The fund, which has already invested around €1Bn in the Portuguese market, has another €1Bn to invest with plans to invest €500 million in the short term and the rest by 2023.
Merlin Properties entered the Portuguese market in 2015 and has snapped up dozens of properties all over Portugal, but since then the REIT aims to “increase its exposure to become the Number 1 player in Portugal’s office market.”
Merlin Properties SOCIMI, S.A. is one of the leading real estate companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange (IBEX-35), focused on the acquisition and management of commercial assets on the Iberian Peninsula.
The Madrid-based company which has elected to be a SOCIMI (Spanish REIT) centres its activities on the acquisition, active management, operation and selective rotation of commercial real estate assets in the “core” and “core plus” segment, mainly in Spain and now Portugal.
The company is focused on the office, retail, logistics and urban hotels market. Merlin currently has a portfolio of assets worth €12Bn of which €1Bn is invested in Portugal in buildings such as Edifício Caribe, Monumental, Torre A (Torres de Lisboa) and Saba Parques Logísticos to name a few.
Merlin also purchased the shopping centre on the South side of the River Tagus, Almada Forum for €406 million and, more recently, two buildings in Parque das Nações for €112 million.
The main investors in the Portuguese offices market currently are Norfin, Castle Group and Merlin Properties according to Merlin which currently holds around 100,000 m2 of office space in Lisbon.
Other companies and funds in the Portuguese market include Square Asset Management, Fundger and Inofomento according to consultants Jones Lang LaSalle.