Thursday, 1 October 2026
Partners Group and Empira Group are launching a new European residential investment vehicle targeting €1 billion in equity commitments, with plans to build a portfolio across several housing segments and major metropolitan markets. The strategy will concentrate primarily on Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain, covering multifamily rental housing as well as student, senior and single-family accommodation.
The fund is expected to make approximately 20 to 30 investments, with around half of the portfolio envisaged for multifamily residential property and the remainder allocated to other living sectors. Capital can be deployed into existing income-producing assets, development projects, refurbishment programmes and properties where operational or energy improvements can increase value.
The strategy is targeting a net internal rate of return above 12%, with portfolio leverage capped at 60% loan-to-cost during the investment period. Its initial term will be seven years, subject to possible extensions, while the first fundraising close is targeted for the third quarter of 2027. The return figure represents the fund’s investment objective rather than a guaranteed outcome.
Lahcen Knapp, Founder and Chairman of Empira Group, said: “The launch of the Empira Pan-European Living Strategy represents an important next step in the development of our European residential platform. Empira has spent more than two decades building local investment and operating capabilities across residential markets, and our combination with Partners Group allows us to bring those capabilities together with a truly global investment platform.”
Knapp added: “Living is fundamentally a local and operationally intensive asset class. Successful investment requires not only identifying attractive markets and assets but also having the people and capabilities on the ground to execute the business plan. Our combined platform gives us that depth across sourcing, financing, development, construction and asset management, and we believe this creates a significant competitive advantage as we scale the strategy across Europe.”
Henrik Orrbeck, Managing Director and Global Co-Head Real Estate at Partners Group, said: “European living represents one of the most compelling structural opportunities within real estate today. Housing supply across many of Europe’s major cities has not kept pace with demand, while demographic change, declining affordability of homeownership and changing consumer preferences continue to expand the need for high-quality rental accommodation.”
Orrbeck added: “By bringing together Partners Group’s investment capabilities and extensive experience across European real estate with Empira’s vertically integrated residential platform, we believe we are well positioned to access this opportunity at scale. The strategy has been designed to invest flexibly across geographies, living subsectors and investment types, allowing us to focus capital on the opportunities where we see the most attractive relative value.”
The combined European living platform currently represents around €6.9 billion of gross asset value and more than 14,500 residential units across over 630 properties and projects. Partners Group and Empira say they have collectively acquired more than 37,000 residential units through more than 135 transactions, providing an established sourcing and operating network for the new strategy.
For Europe’s property investment market, the planned €1 billion raise represents another sizeable commitment of institutional capital to residential real estate. Its structure also reflects a broader shift beyond conventional apartment ownership towards portfolios combining different living formats, development and refurbishment, with local operating capabilities playing a larger role in investment performance.
