We have extensive experience in planning and completing direct and indirect property transactions and advise sellers and buyers throughout the entire process from A to Z.
Real Estate
DLA Piper is your specialised sparring partner, advising on all legal aspects of buying and selling real estate. Whether you are looking to buy or sell, we have a large team of experienced and specialised lawyers, who will guide you through all phases of the process.
We set up an interdisciplinary team matching the specific transaction. Regardless of size and complexity, the transaction team will always be headed by one or more lawyers focusing on cost-effective and proactive case management, who will be the client's contact person(s) from start to end.
Our clients are Danish and foreign property investment companies, developers, public authorities and institutional investors, and our experience covers property transactions in all sectors, including commercial and residential rental properties, industrial and logistics properties, retail centres and hotel properties as well as property developments in all phases.
As part of our legal services, we typically work closely together with the other advisors involved, including estate agents, investment managers, technical consultants and accountants.
Our legal services include:
- Sale preparations
- Due diligence review
- Drafting and negotiation of transaction documents
- Financing of property transactions
- Corporate structuring
- Taxes
- Establishment and structuring of property funds
Sale preparations
Thorough preparations help make your property portfolio more attractive to potential buyers and the sales process as smooth as possible.
As part of preparations, we typically perform a legal due diligence review of the property company and the properties, resulting in a VDD (vendor due diligence) report, which can be presented to potential buyers. The purpose of the due diligence review is also to uncover any irregularities or errors so that they can be rectified before the sales process begins.
In cooperation with your other advisors, we help you identify the best structure and process for the sales transaction. If a structured sale with more potential buyers is the best solution for you as the seller, we will take that into account when we prepare the process. This helps ensure more uniform bids from interested buyers in the bidding process.
Before the actual sales process begins, you should also consider whether to prepare and/or enter into an exclusivity agreement, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), a letter of intent or head of terms and an information memorandum (a descriptive document which is often drawn up before the bidding process).
Naturally, we can also advise you on which agreements to prepare and enter into.
In large-scale property transactions, it is crucial to have a professional and structured data room for quick and easy information sharing between the buyer(s) and the seller. The data room ensures transparency in the sales process and speeds up the information sharing process – particularly if there are many interested buyers. It sends a positive signal to potential buyers that the seller is well-organised, and it speeds up the process.
We help you set up a data room and ensure easy and secure access for the buyer(s). By way of example, it may be necessary – for confidentiality and competition reasons – to divide the data room access granted to buyer(s) into different phases. Data room access for a potential buyer will also require that the buyer in question signs an NDA.
Setting up a well-functioning data room is a time-consuming exercise. Consequently, you may benefit from leaving it to us to find, obtain and structure the data room material in a clear and easy-to-use manner.
We advise on the special rules that must be observed by the state, regions and municipalities when selling real estate. For more information on our legal services in relation to procurement and tender processes in general.
Due diligence review
If you are interested in buying or selling a property company or one or more properties, we can help you through the process by means of a targeted and structured due diligence review. The review maps out the legal aspects relating to the company and the properties and results in a report which presents the findings in a brief, useful and business-oriented form.
We have profound knowledge and experience in planning and completing the legal due diligence review in connection with transactions concerning individual properties, a portfolio of properties and property companies.
We tailor the due diligence report to your needs and the size and complexity of the transaction. In general, the report will be brief and present our essential business-oriented recommendations concerning value and issues which should be addressed in a transfer agreement.
Our investigations and report aim at creating added value for you as the buyer. Therefore, we make sure that we understand the details of your business case and agree with you in advance on the scope of the investigations and the report so that our focus is adapted to your needs. We also keep in close dialogue with your other external advisors so that our findings will be handled in an appropriate and timely manner.
In cooperation with you, we ensure that the findings set out in our due diligence report are dealt with during negotiations and in the transfer agreement.
For Danish buyers or sellers of real estate abroad, finding a lawyer in another country and informing him about the transaction and the business case is often a very resource-intensive process. With DLA Piper, you will never encounter that problem.
Thanks to our massive global presence, we can provide seamless coordination of due diligence reviews in several countries. This means that you can trust us to find suitable advisors in the relevant country and provide them with the necessary information.
Negotiations and conclusion of agreement
Extensive experience, sharp skills and a strategic approach are required to achieve the best possible negotiation result. These three elements form the basis when we advise sellers and buyers on how to draft and negotiate contract documents for both direct and indirect property transactions.
All types of properties require their own special insight and experience, and we have specialists available in all categories such as residential and commercial rental properties, industrial, agricultural and public-sector properties as well as property developments in all phases, including forward purchasing and forward funding models.
We provide project management services relating to the performance of the agreement and effective completion of the transaction.
After closing, we will discuss with you the optimisation opportunities identified in the course of the due diligence process.
Financing of property transactions
We advise on how to finance direct and indirect property transactions as well as construction and project finance – from traditional bank and mortgage credit financing to more complex solutions. In that process, we work closely together with our finance lawyers.
Property investment funds
Our specialist investment funds team advises investment managers and institutional and other investors on how to set up and structure property funds. In that process, we work closely together with our corporate and finance lawyers and our colleagues in other countries.