BALTIC STATES Eften enters residential rental market

The Eften Residential Fund will soon be launched with the aim of becoming the largest residential property fund in the Baltics with a portfolio of around 1,000 apartments. EUR 60 mln of equity investment is planned in its initial stage.

The Eften Residential Fund will be registered in Estonia as private fund (usaldusfond). Its investment period will be five years from its founding and the leverage target will be 50 pct of the portfolio. The investors in the first investment round, mostly private professional individuals and institutions that have previously invested in Eften funds, will place EUR 16 mln in the fund.

In the field of commercial property, Eften is the largest fund management company in the Baltics and its next step will be expansion into residential property. Eften was founded during previous financial crisis and the coronavirus-driven recession is therefore a good time for entering a new business segment. We are planning so-called bulk purchases during the upcoming low tide in the construction market, which means that the fund will purchase entire residential buildings rather than individual apartments.
Viljar Arakas, the CEO of Eften Capital

The first planned and committed investment of the fund will be a building with 112 apartments in the Kadaka Metsapark estate in Tallinn , which is to be completed by autumn 2021, when the first apartments are also to be rented out. The developer is local company Hepsor, while Mitt & Perlebach is the general contractor.

Eften’s previous experience in residential development includes eight apartment buildings with 112 apartments in Riga’s Bišumuiža district that where built during the first development phase, of which 85 pct have been sold.