Berlin's cash-strapped city government said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell more than 65,000 apartments in the German capital to a private investor group backed by US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Cerberus European Investments LLC and Whitehall 2001, a group of funds managed by Goldman Sachs, are leading a consortium that will buy GSW Group, a property holding whose portfolio for 1.97 billion euros ($2.38 billion) including debt.
The investors will pay the Berlin government 405 million euros as well as four million euros to cover costs and will take on GSW's 1.56 billion euros in debt, the city state's finance ministry said in a statement.
The deal will bring the government well over the 250 million euros pencilled into its budget plans.
Cerberus and Whitehall said they would limit rent increases as well as guaranteeing to respect existing tenancy agreements on the flats, which are spread across the city and account for some four percent of Berlin's entire housing market. In addition, they agreed not to sell GSW, one of the largest owne.