Our services

Leading advice for best solutions.

Waterway offers integrated real estate advisory over four key areas and covers all asset classes and deal types.

Sell-side Brokerage, Transactions & Investment Advisory

Waterway is a preeminent one-stop-shop sell-side and buy-side brokerage and transactions advisory firm specialising in non-core business district (CBD) offices and retail in Germany.

We pride ourselves on our creative international approach to 'finding the right buyer' for assets and portfolios, whether marketed at a regional, national or international level. We achieve this through a forensic approach to asset and portfolio analysis, deal-specific problem solving and world-class execution and customer focus.

Fundraising & Alternative Capital Solutions

Our continuous network development with worldwide and local institutional investors, as well as owners, developers and others, has enabled us to become highly effective intermediaries to match investment opportunities with the appropriate capital. In aggregate, this equity capital has been deployed into real estate assets and portfolios worth around €1 billion.

Be it conventional fund raising or alternative capital solutions, Waterway links project developers, asset and investment managers with the matching capital source.

Debt Origination, Debt Brokerage & Structuring

While traditional banks provide competitive terms for core and core-plus products in established asset classes and for institutional investors, some investors need, or prefer, alternative lenders.

As more international investors have moved up the risk curve into Germany’s second- and third-tier locations, we see this as a growth business line in the coming years, including sourcing staple finance for non-core and complex deals.

General Advisory, Special Situations & Restructurings

All our senior team members have years of experience in structuring and working out billion loan and bond portfolios and have the necessary network of technical partners and investors to match any particular constellation with the right solution. We know the investors, we know the banks and we know the problems in the underlying loans, assets and portfolios. Whether it is in securing alternative use planning permission, managing multiple economic stake-holders, or bespoke issues related to asset location, capex, documentation or legacy complex structuring, we have problem-solved countless times.

In addition, Waterway offers general advice with regards to development projects, project management, strategic asset management and execution.

Smart investment also means turning your focus away from the obvious approach and discovering hidden opportunities. We will be happy to show you how.

5 Essential Building Blocks For A Successful Transaction

A transaction process and the period leading up to it are like the compilation of an orchestra and years of practice with the transaction being the final symphony. Waterway has identified five areas in this procedure, of which many are often being neglected or underestimated with regard to their impact on deal success. With remarkable deal ownership, the Waterway team takes pride in supreme quality, which includes many levels of problem solving in order to bring every level of the transaction up to the Waterway standard.

Setup & Drive

At Waterway, we work on every deal, and we take ownership of every deal and we always approach potential investors individually on eye-to-eye. When partnering with Waterway, you can expect unmatched engagement with veteran dealmakers and first-class transaction execution. When we take on a new client assignment, the team orients itself to focus entirely upon the client’s needs and wishes. We have a 'full steam ahead' mentality with a commitment to Total Service Quality, and we not only measure our performance by short-term results but also by the long-term success of our clients.

Preparation & Transparency

Waterway procures and structures data rooms, which goes beyond simply compiling commercial and technical documents. Waterway also makes sure that only required documentation is part of the data room, and that open items such as damage claims from inspection reports are being followed up and remedied. Lease agreements are also scanned and scrutinised, while our team makes sure that crucial documents such as service charge reconciliations are in presentable condition. Waterway produces market-leading information memoranda tailored to each individual transaction with the goal of maximum transparency, while information is compiled in a easily digestible manner to aid a swift decision-making process for a buyer.

Network & Investor Universe

Waterway has always been on the forefront of reaching out to international investors and introducing them to the German property market. Many international investors have invested in their first German or European properties through Waterway. At the same time Waterway keeps its finger on the pulse of current market activity and individual investment appetite. Waterway has produced seed investments for listed companies and helped fulfil investment quotas in the German market. Our clients will tell you that no Waterway investor list looks the same and always consists of an eclectic mix of regional, national and international/exotic investors.

Creative Thinking Outside The Box

Waterway has built a vast network of regional, national and international investors and lenders that also invest and lend on non-plain vanilla assets and asset types. We leverage this network and expertise when, for example, a certain debt financing is elementary to the next investor and a transaction would otherwise not succeed. This thorough and diligent approach has led to many satisfied clients achieving great loan terms on often complex assets and portfolios and thus securing the original sale transaction.

Skills & Execution Power

The key to a successful transaction is a clearly structured, transparent and tight process. Our experience of working on the principal side has resulted in an unprecedented degree of ownership in a transaction. We don’t see ourselves primarily as brokers, but our clients representative and extended arm. We curate, manage and push when necessary in order to stick to the process, which is paramount. Waterway always stays in control of the process, which leads to superior results.