Bouwinvest adds 198 apartments to existing mid-range rental portfolio in the up-and-coming Binckhorst quarter in The Hague

Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors has acquired an additional 198 rental apartments at Binck City Park in The Hague from project developer VORM on behalf of its Dutch Residential Fund. Over half – or 110 - of the units will be let to middle income tenants. Bouwinvest now owns 410 apartments on the estate after purchasing 212 units from VORM at the end of 2020. Both developments are part of De Binckhorst, a large-scale regeneration project where a former 99.5 hectare industrial area is being transformed into a lively commercial and residential district surrounding three harbours.

The Binck City Park development comprises roughly 900 apartments split over four towers. Bouwinvest is now buying Tower 2 on Kasteellaan, directly opposite the 17^th-century Binckhorst manor house and surrounding park.

Hans Meurs, director at VORM, said: “The Netherlands faces a growing shortage of homes, particularly affordable ones, and the Binckhorst regeneration scheme is helping to alleviate that problem. We, and our long-term partner Bouwinvest, are not only delivering new social housing and mid-range rental apartments to add to the existing supply, but in the process are also improving standards by creating high-quality, modern product.”

Michiel de Bruine, Director Dutch Residential Investment at Bouwinvest, added: “The key focus of our Dutch Residential Fund’s growth strategy is to satisfy the continued demand from tenants and institutional investors for affordable accommodation as well as to increase the supply of mid-price range rental units. Our investment in new build projects such as De Binckhorst helps meet the demand from both these groups as well as create stable rental income for our shareholders. These two acquisitions are great additions to our portfolio and demonstrate our ability to source and acquire product in a relatively short space of time.”

Construction of the new development is scheduled to start in 2022 and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2024. VORM Bouw is responsible for the project development.