OTPP Strikes a JV With DWE to Invest in German Multifamily Properties
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has acquired four fully leased multifamily properties in Germany as a launching point to its new joint venture with DW Effectum (DWE) Residential. The partnership with the Munich-headquartered residential investment asset manager is aimed at adding further multifamily assets in major German cities and expanding the pension fund’s holdings across Europe.
“We focus on markets where active asset management and local expertise create lasting value and DWE’s market knowledge and operational capability make them the right partner to enhance asset performance and resident outcomes over the long term,” says Jenny Hammarlund, executive managing director, real estate, at Ontario Teachers’.
DWE has €700 million (CAD $1.1 billion) in assets under management. “We are very grateful for our new joint venture with Ontario Teachers’,” says Daniel Filser, managing director with DWE. “This transaction marks the beginning of a broader living strategy, and we are excited to further grow this portfolio over the coming years.”
Yesterday, Ontario Teachers' announced it is investing in the German residential market through a joint venture with DWE:
- Ontario Teachers’ has acquired four fully let multi-family assets in southern Germany. The investment marks its first residential investment in the country and the launch of a new partnership with DW Effectum Residential (“DWE”), its local operating partner.
- The transaction reinforces Ontario Teachers’ long-term strategy to expand its real estate footprint across leading European residential markets.
Munich, March 23, 2026: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (“Ontario Teachers’”) today announced it has acquired four fully let multi-family residential assets in southern Germany.
This marks Ontario Teachers’ first residential investment in Germany under a new joint venture with DWE, its specialist German residential real estate operating partner. The strategy will focus on building a portfolio of multi-family assets across Germany’s leading cities and surrounding metropolitan areas. The investment builds on Ontario Teachers’ continued expansion across key European markets and represents a further step in building a resilient and diversified real estate portfolio, with a focus on core markets supported by strong long-term fundamentals.
Jenny Hammarlund, Executive Managing Director, Real Estate at Ontario Teachers’, said:
“This investment strengthens our exposure to high-quality urban rental markets in Europe and advances our objective of building resilient, income-generating portfolios. We focus on markets where active asset management and local expertise create lasting value and DWE’s market knowledge and operational capability make them the right partner to enhance asset performance and resident outcomes over the long term.”
Daniel Filser, Managing Director at DWE, said:
“We are very grateful for our new joint venture with Ontario Teachers’ and want to thank Jenny and her team for their trust and hard work. This transaction marks the beginning of a broader living strategy, and we are excited to further grow this portfolio over the coming years.”
About Ontario Teachers’
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $279.4 billion as at December 31, 2025. Ontario Teachers’ is a fully funded defined benefit pension plan, and it invests in a broad array of asset classes to deliver retirement security for 346,000 working members and pensioners. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
About DWE
DW Effectum Residential (“DWE”) is a specialized residential real estate investment and asset manager with c. €700 million of assets under management. The firm operates a fully integrated platform and focuses on maximizing value creation across the investment lifecycle. DWE develops bespoke, scalable investment strategies for its clients tailored to specific risk–return profiles, ranging from traditional aggregation strategies to specialized operating platforms.
Go back to read my recent discussion with OTPP's CEO and CIOs covering 2025 results.
Stephen McLennan, CIO of Asset Allocation shared this with me on their real estate activities:
Happy to give some comments on that. You're right, Jenny has been with the firm for several years, and more recently, was named the head of real estate. She's thus far done a fantastic job.
The story with real estate is really what's happening in Canada is one piece, and then what's happening internationally. This sector in Canada specifically has a lot of challenges over the last four or five years, think COVID, think a number of failures of major kind of retailers and so on.
I think that's been a very big challenge. You've also had the spectre of kind of just rising cost of capital, higher interest rates, and how that flows through, kind of cost accounting and valuation pieces.
On the Canadian side, the impact of Hudson Bay was a big driver of performance in 2025. We're seeing some green shoots now in terms of return to the office. Streets are quite busy. That has an impact both on the office side, but it also drives traffic into our malls, which we tend to bring our locations. And so there are some signs of, I suppose, on the real estate piece.
The other part of the equation is what's been going on internationally and and frankly, that's part of the efforts to diversify that portfolio away from Canada to kind of get a different flavour of exposure, both geographically and by sector. As you know, one of the challenges with our portfolio in Canada is that it is very concentrated to the sectors that have been impacted the most over the last couple of years. And so there has been a conscious effort to try to source assets and sectors that are different than that. And those were actually quite positive in 2025 if you think about some of the exposures in Northern Europe, as well as some of the exposures in our US-related to our data center.
They also shared with me that their real estate portfolio is now 56% Canada, down significantly from prior to Covid when it was 85% Canadian (all managed by Cadillac Fairview).
The name of the game at OTPP's real estate group right now is international diversification
Jenny Hammarlund and her team continue to focus their attention there, teaming up with experienced operators to acquire solid assets in Europe.
That's where their focus is right now and this deal with DWE to invest in multifamily residences in top German urban areas is very much in line with their focus and strategy.
I bring this deal to your attention because the transformation going on in OTPP's real estate portfolio is critically important over the long run. This geographic and sector diversification will bolster the plan's risk-adjusted returns and that's why it's worth tracking these deals.
Below, the Iran war is putting further strain on transatlantic relations. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has now spoken of a 'deep rift' with the United States. In unusually strong comments, he said that 'there will be no going back to before January 20, 2025', when Donald Trump began his second presidential term.
And President Steimeier slammed the US administration for starting the war against Iran. DW’s head of German politics Max Hofmann analyzes the impact of Steinmeier’s remarks on relations with Washington.
Comments
Post a Comment