Patrizia Global Partners A/S, a leading partner for global real assets, has launched its new Patrizia Sustainable Communities I SCSp-RAIF, impact investment fund (“Patrizia Sustainable Communities” or “the Fund”), the first such Patrizia product purely dedicated to impact investing in a strategic commitment to significantly boost the company’s impact investment activity.

The Fund aims to create ‘sustainable communities’ by providing thousands of affordable homes, including social housing, and additional social infrastructure, such as public facilities for example libraries, day care centres and healthcare facilities, to underserved communities in around 25 locations in and around major European cities. It is classified as an impact investment fund in that it provides homes for key workers who cannot afford to live close to their workplaces and for people on the social housing waiting list. In addition, the Fund promotes social inclusion, boosts connectivity and reduces the carbon footprint in the communities it invests in, while targeting attractive returns.

Recent studies have shown a growing need for more affordable housing and for greater social inclusion across Europe. Over 80 million European citizens are reported to be overburdened by housing costs and 75 million are said to be socially isolated, according to academic research.

“As a Fund, Patrizia Sustainable Communities is not only closely aligned to SFDR - Article 9 in terms of its sustainable investment goals but in terms of Article 9’s robust disclosure requirements. The Fund which is also fully aligned with the UN SDGs, provides a dual return to investors. This dual return consists of a financial risk adjusted return, on the one hand, and measurable positive social and environmental outcomes, on the other,” said Mathieu Elshout, the Fund Chairman and Patrizia AG’s Head of Sustainability and Impact Investing. “This is a really exciting time to get involved in the fast-growing impact investment space. With support from our clients and because of our 38-year proven track record of building social infrastructure and sustainable communities, Patrizia’s ambition is to become a leading global impact investor in the Real Assets sector with a meaningful part of its AUM in impact investments by 2035.”

In the first closing of the capital raise at the end of 2021, two Danish pension funds, AP Pension and PKA, provided the Fund with a total of EUR 125 million in equity to coincide with the closing of the first seed investment.

“To run cities efficiently and sustainably, people from all ages and across the income spectrum need to be able to find a place to live, work and access leisure, education and health care services within a reasonable time. Thanks to the commitments from AP Pension and PKA, we are now ready to start our seed investment project in Dublin, Ireland, where there are over 60,000 people on the social housing waiting list and affordability is a major issue. For this first project, we will provide 290 social and affordable apartments, which is aimed at improving the quality of life of its residents by making them feel part of a vibrant community. The apartments will be certified to the highest green real estate standards,” said Marleen Bikker-Bekkers, Fund Manager of Patrizia Sustainable Communities. “This is a great start for our fund in creating attractive and sustainable communities where people feel included and connected. We are in a good dialogue with a further group of international investors to follow the example of AP Pension and PKA and join our equity raising initiative which has a target of around EUR 500 million in capital so we can further increase our sustainable impact across European cities.”

The Head of Real Estate of PKA, Nikolaj Stampe, commented: “We are thrilled to continue our longstanding investment relationship with PATRIZIA with whom we share a passion for making a positive environmental and social impact. This is a great opportunity to further work on our common goal to create and invest in sustainable homes across Europe and at the same time provide our members with good financial returns.”

Peter Olsson, CEO at AP Property, the property company of AP Pension added: “Our company thinks about sustainability in everything it does, not only in the choice of materials but in the way we construct open and inclusive residential areas with space and services for everyone. With our investment in Patrizia Sustainable Communities, we can give hard working people the opportunity to live in attractive, sustainable housing close to their places of work in nearby cities. We see this fund as a way - to positively influence the development of sustainable real estate and construction. We are pursuing the same ambitious goals as we have for our own developments in Denmark, only this time, we are applying them to a pan-European strategy.”