Land, property, planet: PATRIZIA's evolution and founder-led DNA

Sitting here in 2024 and being asked to summarise the past 40 years, you might be thinking: why did I do it? Why did I enter the world of property, then investment management and continue to diversify and grow the business along the way?

For me, it’s always been about getting people’s foot onto the property ladder and the dignity which comes with owning property – for yourself and the generations to come. To understand this passion of mine, we have to go back further – much further back than 1984 – and dig into my family history. Family, ultimately, is where this all returns to. For generations, my family worked on the land and made their living through agriculture. In farming, ESG is a philosophy not just a term. You work on the land and nurture it to make a living.

Making a living through agriculture requires ingenuity, hard work, dedication… and luck. The behaviour of your crops, scavenging animals and of course, the weather can turn a good harvest into a bad one and vice-versa. With all these variables, my family had passed down their livelihood from generation to generation. My great-grandfather then started turning the operation into production. With the profits made, he used them to make the operation bigger and better.

But then he faced unforeseeable challenges. First, with World War I which saw the destruction of much of the facilities and tools which kept the operation ticking over. Combined with a couple of dry seasons and needing to pay his employees, he was forced to sell land. In the farming community, to sell land is like cutting off one of your limbs. To add to his woes, soon after selling land, a change in national currency meant he essentially owned a lot of printed paper.

This was a big lesson for our family. You have to make sure you secure your income. You need to have more assets to diversify your income and not leave you vulnerable to unexpected events. Fortunately, his resilience and determination to provide for his family paid off in the end. When I was starting to make my own way in life it was born out of a passion for residential real estate investing. I had figured out how to make tenants owners.

At PATRIZIA, I wanted to build communities and build ownership and keep ESG firmly on the agenda. So, from the very beginning, it was about building communities and sustainable futures. To enable people the dignity of owning property which can be handed down to future generations is very important to me. So, with PATRIZIA, it’s a family story. You need to have incoming-producing assets which work with the weather, but aren’t reliant on the weather; very important in a world in which the climate is rapidly changing. And this feeds into our long-term megatrend investment focus and appetite for diversification which protects against ‘bad weather’ external factors.

Giving people a foot on the property ladder and the security this entails for generations to come is inherent in my philosophy, with the passing down of land part of my family history, and this is very much part of PATRIZIA’s DNA – from the very beginning, during the past 40 years and onwards as it evolves into the go to manager for smart real asset solutions.

What’s next then? In the future, there will be a convergence of the physical and digital world

Ten years ago, we didn’t have an infrastructure business but we identified the convergence of real estate and infrastructure. We then spent eight years looking for the right infrastructure business to join PATRIZIA. We are now in the decade of infrastructure and this strategic move will serve us well.

To be the go-to manager for smart real asset solutions in 10 years’ time, we need to cleverly bring together technology, real estate and infrastructure. Already, we are seeing opportunities in this space – one great example being our e-mobility platform, which brings together all three elements into one smart vehicle.

Clients often want to know what differentiates you as an investment manager. In PATRIZIA’s case, I would say our focus on technology now and in the future to support RE-Infra is one differentiator. And the other key differentiator is the PATRIZIA Foundation.

Making an impact has been the driving force for everything I have done at PATRIZIA and the Foundation. We have a 40-year-long strong commitment to helping people in need. And, personally, I have always been convinced that a company that wants to be successful in the long term must always assume social responsibility, give back and serve an overarching purpose. There is no greater example of this than the Foundation, working hand-in-hand with PATRIZIA.

Sustainability is, and will continue to be, central to the history and values of PATRIZIA. Our rankings by GRESB and UN PRI are excellent and we strive for continuous improvement. It is key to our firm’s DNA which grew out of a multi-generational farming family where there are deeply ingrained values that if you don’t take care of the land it will cease to take care of you. What we started 40 years ago in supporting the underprivileged was seen as charity. Today, no one can afford not to do it! And the Foundation is happy to support our partners execute on the ’S’ of their ESG strategy.

This article is taken from the digital version of our thought leadership magazine, estatements. Take a look at the magazine here: Welcome - estatements magazine Edition 2, 2024