Long Harbour has acquired two holiday park freeholds in the Netherlands in a ground lease deal.
The deal, on behalf of the firm’s flagship European vehicle — the Long Harbour European Secured Income Fund I (LHESIF I) — takes the amount it has deployed into the European ground lease market to €100 million.
The two commercial freeholds are the first holiday parks in The Netherlands to be split into a freehold and leasehold utilising a ground lease structure.
The LHESIF I, which is open to new investors, has a pipeline of further deals across Europe.
The real estate and asset backed investment manager bought the freeholds from European holiday park operator Landal GreenParks, the two holiday parks offer over 1,000 holiday homes in total and high-quality central guest facilities.
While Long Harbour will own the freeholds of the central guest facilities, Landal will retain the leasehold and continue to operate the assets through its experienced on-site and central management teams.
“These latest acquisitions are Long Harbour’s first in The Netherlands and some of the largest assets we have acquired on behalf of LHESIF I to date. The bifurcation of the holiday parks into a new freehold and leasehold structure will provide stable, long-term ground-rent income for the fund,” Andy Wheeler, investment manager for the Long Harbour European Secured Income Fund, said.
“We are pleased to have partnered with Landal, who are a leader in the European holiday park sector and have excellent asset management capabilities, with the two parks already having benefited from recent significant investment. We are actively targeting further deals in the holiday park sector, where owner operators are increasingly looking to recapitalise their assets.”
The Landal Het Vennenbos holiday park is located in De Brabantse Kempen, an area of natural beauty and close to the Belgian border. The second asset, Landal De Lommerbergen, is a 35-hectare holiday park with 502 cottages situated close to the Dutch-German border.
Founded in The Netherlands in 1954, Landal GreenParks is one of Europe’s leading holiday park operators, with over 90 locations throughout Europe across eight countries.