Pension Fund Losses Spotlight Storied Realtor’s Licensing Model

Over almost half a century, Engel & Völkers built a reputation as Germany’s best-known realtor for high-end properties, championing “competence, exclusivity and passion” as core values. Thousands of Berlin dentists found out the hard way that the brand is less exclusive than it may seem.

As their pension fund sifts through soured investments that have cut its €2.2 billion ($2.5 billion) asset pool in half, names such as Engel & Völkers Asset Management, Engel & Völkers Capital and Engel & Völkers Digital Invest appear as counterparties in many of the deals. In all, several hundred million euros in losses and writedowns are linked to entities carrying the Engel & Völkers name, according to a legal filing by the pension fund, which is known by its German acronym VZB.