INVESTIKA real estate fund expanded its portfolio to Croatia

INVESTIKA real estate fund expanded its portfolio to Croatia. In Istria, the fund has acquired top-quality building plots with direct access to the sea

Four hectares of land on the Croatian peninsula of Istria became the latest addition to the INVESTIKA portfolio of the real estate fund. The area intended for development construction is extraordinary not only because of its own direct access to the sea, but also because of its exclusive location in one of the most sought-after tourist locations on the Croatian Adriatic.

In the future, up to 30 multi-storey luxury villas will be built on plots of land in the cadastre of the municipality of Fažana directly opposite the Brijuni National Park near the city of Pula. The total expected value of the project exceeds 100 million euros. "There is a shortage of properties of this type in Croatia and the demand thus significantly exceeds the supply. Thanks to this, the project has great potential for attractive future appreciation and is a great addition to the fund's portfolio," said Václav Kovář, the INVESTIKA portfolio manager of the real estate fund.

For the largest non-bank retail real estate fund in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the new Croatian acquisition represents another step towards fulfilling its vision. This is to manage a portfolio of real estate assets across Europe with a total value of one billion euros. Currently, the fund capital of the INVESTIKA real estate fund amounts to CZK 12.1 billion (almost EUR 500 million).

The closest milestone in the newly acquired Croatian project will now be the approval of the territorial development plan in the so-called Tourist Development Area – a zone where the local authorities are counting on expanding facilities for tourists. After obtaining all necessary permits, the fund plans to prepare the land for construction. "Following on from this, we consider long-term ownership with the later sale of the land itself, as well as development and the subsequent sale or rental of new villas. Alternatively, we can choose a combination of both variants," Kovář described the possible future of the parcels.

The acquisition of land in Croatia comes at a time when funds from the INVESTIKA family, headed by the INVESTIKA real estate fund, are enjoying strong interest from new clients. In the first half of this year alone, investors invested CZK 2.2 billion in funds from the INVESTIKA family, surpassing the record second half of 2021 by almost a fifth. At the same time, however, in the current environment of growing uncertainty, investors choose more conservative instruments, such as our fund, because they perceive an increase in volatility for stocks, for example. For investors, the long-term above-inflation appreciation, which we aim for with our products, is certainly interesting," explains Petr Čížek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the INVESTIKA investment company that manages the INVESTIKA real estate fund. For this year, Čížek expects the fund's return to be in the upper half of the long-term performance target, which is 4-6% per year.