Skip to website navigation Skip to article navigation Skip to content
Annual Reports 2023
Organisation
The Netherlands
Bouwinvest
Residential Fund Office Fund Retail Fund
www.f19.nl

Report of Management Board

A page refresh occures when a subject is selected.

Skip article navigation.

Create your Bouwinvest report

(0) article(s) in My report
Add to My report

Strategy  

In 2023 Bouwinvest developed a new corporate strategy towards 2030 to proactively engage with and benefit from fast changing market conditions. Bouwinvest has achieved strong growth in the past (11% annual AUM growth between 2017-2022) driven by a set of unique advantages and tailwinds. However, these do not apply to the future and we acknowledge there are key market challenges, many of which are structural in nature:

  • Dutch pension market slowing down due to demographic developments resulting in a reduction of capital inflow from Dutch pension pools 

  • Dutch pension scheme reform potentially impacting real estate allocations and further pension fund consolidation 

  • Global headwinds based on the short to medium term macro-economic outlook affecting asset values 

  • Increasing cost of compliance driven by regulatory changes and investor requirements 

  • Competitive intensity from peers in the Netherlands and abroad who are seeking for scale through inorganic growth moves 

Our client-oriented growth strategy is aimed to cope with these challenges and to grow into a stronger real estate investment manager with a unique profile. Our strategy focuses on three pillars leveraging our key strengths and unique DNA: 

Client: Building scale by delivering high client satisfaction 

Performance driven: Delivering outperformance to investors by transforming towards a world-class operating model 

Responsibility: Becoming a leader in corporate responsibility and responsible investing by strengthening our ESG performance

Client 

Building scale is fundamental to delivering stronger fund performance for our investors and a robust financial basis for the management company to re-invest in required skills and capabilities to meet the increasing demands of our stakeholders. Building scale will enhance our ability to: 

  • Attract and retain talent 

  • Benefit from economies of scale 

  • Partner and integrate 

  • Acquire larger scale assets 

  • Accelerate fundraising 

The primary objective is to position Bouwinvest as the universal real estate leader in direct real estate investment in the Netherlands and to grow Bouwinvest’s current indirect model as a global sector generalist allocator. The core components of our growth strategy are: 

  1. Maintain a focus on the existing business, serve our existing clients, and continuously improve on service levels while pursuing optimising within each fund and mandates’ performance 

  2. Develop and launch dedicated new (value add) investment products to attract new capital and build a more diversified investor base including international investors and other types of (institutional) investors. These new investment products (funds/mandates/club deals) will focus on the Dutch market and combine targeting of high growth niches with a strong ESG orientation; all supported by our developer DNA

  3. Selectively pursue local M&A opportunities to increase scale effects, particularly with targets that can support delivery of prioritised niches for new funds and broad LP base 

  4. Open up the international indirect business platform to new clients, providing them with preferential access to joint ventures, partnerships, and co-investment opportunities.


There are synergies between the separate direct and indirect growth paths, specifically the transfer of market knowledge and General Partner trends back to the core Dutch business, as well as being an international capital sourcing vehicle for Limited Partners looking to gain exposure to the Netherlands, which helps justify this dual pronged strategic approach. 

Performance driven 

A success factor critical to the execution of our growth strategy is an increased focus on delivering outperformance to continue to improve stakeholder value and client servicing. Therefore, we have started our transformation program #Invest which has progressed well this year. Examples of successes but not limited to are: 

  • Developed target operating model design 

  • New organisational structure and governance effective by 1 January 2024 

  • Mapped processes as a basis for improvements in 2024 

  • Introduced new strategy planning cycle  

  • Implemented project portfolio management 

  • Defined new core competencies 

  • Realised first business benefits from data transformation 

  • Started implementation of HR transformation including new HR management system 

In 2024 #Invest will continue with Bouwinvest’s transformation to set ourselves up for success. Besides continuing the already started initiatives like HR- and data transformation, we will also start addressing new areas like new ways of working, new capabilities, performance management, and leadership- and team development. 

Responsibility 

Bouwinvest will further build on its reputation as impactful investor by strengthening our ESG performance through: 

  • Leveraging the core belief of impact investing in our growth strategy aligned with our purpose. We firmly believe the defining characteristic of worldclass real estate will be the impact it has on our planet and stakeholders 

  • Improving our responsible investing and corporate responsibility practice by making our transition fact-based and data-driven. This includes using leading industry wide standards that measure true transition progress 

  • Expanding our industry-first and innovative Social Impact Partnership and adopting brown to green strategies in our other funds as part of the new value-add products, particularly in residential and healthcare 

Driven from our purpose we are determined to continue to invest in our proposition of Real Value for Life and as part of that deliver market leading financial ánd ESG performance on capital invested. 

Current market proposition 

Bouwinvest manages six Dutch (sector) funds, four of which are open for investors (Healthcare Fund per 1 January 2024), and three international mandates. Currently the funds and mandates have a total of 37 investors with € 15.2 billion assets under management (AUM). In Q4 this year Bouwinvest launched the Dutch Social Impact Real Estate Partnership. In 2024 Bouwinvest will continue working on new investment strategies for a broader group of investors as it widens its scope of products to meet client demand and exploit opportunities in the real estate market in line with the new corporate strategy. 

Follow us