Strategy

Our investment areas span a wide range of property types.

Office buildings

Office property remains Cofinimmo's principal area of investment. Here, our strategy focuses on long-term leases, the calibre of tenants, location of properties and a limited development for our own account. It also comprises an active asset arbitrage with the goal of retaining the highest quality portfolio.

Our commercial and Property Management teams build strong and lasting relationships with our clients. We aim to provide an all-in-one property solution combining quality buildings, flexible arrangements and responsive, customer-focused services.

Healthcare properties

Within our objective of bringing more equilibrium in our company's risk profile, in 2005, Cofinimmo identified the nursing homes sector as a promising property investment segment providing returns equivalent to the office segment with comparable lease periods. Moreover, these investments present attractive demographic characteristics and an important expansion potential. Concretely, Cofinimmo acquires the real estate portfolio of the nursing homes operators allowing them to focus on their core business. Then the properties are re-let to the operators over the long term (12 years in France, 27 years in Belgium). We do not assume any risk relating to the management of these institutions. Also our company wishes to accompany them in their growth taking care of the renovation of existing institutions or the construction of new projects. The high-calibre locations of these investments guarantee their residual value and offer major expansion potential.

Corporate Operating Properties

In recent years, Cofinimmo has developed long-term partnerships in specialised sectors with major corporate companies. Companies operating within these industries wish to focus on their core business. So we acquire their property assets and assume responsibility for the structural upkeep of the buildings, allowing them to concentrate on their main operations. By focusing only on their property assets, we take no risks connected with the activities of these partners. Our most important Corporate Operating Properties project is Pubstone, the long-term real estate partnership concluded with AB InBev.

Public-Private Partnerships

Increasingly, local authorities want to be relieved of the responsibility for building and maintaining public premises. One of the options available to them is the Public-Private Partnership. We're always on the lookout for stable and low-risk investments and so we maintain an interest in many projects like this. Generally, this involves lease-finance arrangements, rather than actually acquiring ownership of the properties concerned.

Commercial strategy

For many years Cofinimmo has pursued a commercial strategy geared to forging a close relationship of trust with our clients and maximising the occupancy rate of our portfolio. We offer our office clients flexibility in the conditions and duration of current leases, an essential feature today given their need to adapt rapidly to change. In addition, a wide range of property-related services is offered to the client, designed to facilitate the task of managing office space, thereby reducing the time that clients need to spend on this aspect. Above all else, we have continued to show real commitment to our "Together In Real Estate" ethos, based on establishing and maintaining really strong partnerships with all our clients.

Geographic presence

We were exclusively established in Belgium until 2006. Since then at Cofinimmo we have grown to establish a presence in the Netherlands and France, through long-term partnerships with lease operators. We give priority to Belgium's neighbouring countries, where we have sound knowledge of the property markets and their specific practices. The existence in a neighbouring country of the real estate investment trust tax regime, which is similar to that of the Sicafi, is an incentive to select this country for our foreign investments.