Echo Investment is launching a joint venture with a company controlled by an unnamed investor. Resi4Rent is the first fully integrated investor, operator and asset manager for purpose-built residential communities in Poland. With more than 1,200 apartments under construction and another 1,700 apartments ready for construction in the next 12 months, Resi4Rent will be the largest residential for rent platform in Poland. The first tenants will be able to move in during the fourth quarter of 2019.
According to the framework agreement, Resi4Rent will operate as a joint-venture between R4R S.a r.l, controlled by a fund managed by one of the world’s premier investment managers, with a 70% stake, and Echo Investment, the biggest Polish developer with the remaining 30% stake. Echo Investment will provide planning, design and developments services, while Resi4Rent will lead the operational management in-house. The final agreement is subject to antimonopoly consent.
“Resi4Rent will be the largest apartment rental platform in Poland. By entering this segment, Echo Investment will have the opportunity to significantly increase the scale of its residential business. Furthermore, Resi4Rent will enrich our mixed-use and destination development schemes such as Warsaw Brewery by promoting an urban lifestyle and creating communities around it”, says Nicklas Lindberg, CEO of Echo Investment.
Piotr Gromniak, Vice-President of Echo Investment, who supervises the rental apartment segment, adds “Resi4Rent is responding to the changing way we live, work and entertain. Thus, we enter this new and interesting but under-supplied segment to respond to the needs of urban migration and with a great sense of purpose. The institutional residential for rent sector will be a stable and growing business with attractive yields, just like in other European countries as Germany,” says Piotr Gromniak.
According to the latest issue of the Property Index report by Deloitte, only slightly more than 15% of Poles rent their apartments, significantly less than other Europeans. For instance, 23% of Czechs, 24% of Britons, 30% of Austrians and as many as 54% of Germans prefer to rent an apartment than to own one.
“The projects like Resi4Rent will gradually fill the gap and make renting a more attractive solution, especially for young, mobile professionals who don’t want the unnecessary financial burden associated with long term mortgage debt, attribute less of importance to direct ownership but want to benefit from secure institutional tenancy offering,” adds Gromniak.
