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Houben Vermögensverwaltung
Burghart Houben manages his family's Munich-rooted real estate wealth and a continent-wide venture portfolio from a Liechtenstein base.
Houben Vermögensverwaltung
The office was established in 2011 to manage capital generated from the Houben family's decades-long acquisition and operation of multifamily and mixed-use properties in Munich's Altstadt, Schwabing, and neighboring boroughs. Founder Burghart Houben leads the firm from its registered base in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, while the proprietary real estate portfolio — eight mixed-use assets clustered in Munich's core — remains the visible anchor of the family's wealth. The investment program spans three formats: fund commitments, direct co-investments and special-purpose vehicles. The sector guardrails are unusual for a European real-estate family office, extending to Cannabis & Psychedelics, ClimateTech, Energy Transition & Renewables, and Enterprise Software. Geographic deployment is weighted to Europe. Confirmed technology focuses include biotech and ESG-oriented businesses, which the office accesses through a manager network rather than by building internal origination teams at scale. Burghart Houben remains the named managing director, and earlier business partners Dieter Wältner and Thomas Zeitler were previously associated through HWZ Projekt GmbH, a vehicle tied to the real estate operations. No organizational chart or current headcount is public. The office maintains a lean public profile: its primary domain, houben.vg, yields no scraped content, reinforcing an approach built on direct relationships rather than open marketing. Structurally, the office sits at a midpoint between a pure preservation vehicle and an active venture platform. The unreported AUM, combined with a mixed portfolio of hard assets and early-stage stakes, makes it more closely resemble a family-backed special-situations firm than the typical generational wealth custodian. The Liechtenstein domicile adds a layer of regulatory discretion uncommon among German-rooted family offices that typically keep their headquarters in Frankfurt or Berlin.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
2011
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Liechtenstein
City
Vaduz
Corporate office
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Additional offices
Munich, Germany
Principals
Burghart Houben
Managing Director
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Houben Vermögensverwaltung?
Burghart Houben is the founder and managing director and the sole named investment principal. The office has not published an investment committee roster, and former business partners Dieter Wältner and Thomas Zeitner were tied to the legacy real-estate vehicle HWZ Projekt GmbH rather than the venture fund-of-funds. For allocators, this means the pipeline and final check-writing authority likely consolidate in a single decision-maker.
How does the family office source its venture and growth-stage deal flow?
The firm operates a fund-of-funds model alongside direct co-investments and SPVs, which implies deal flow arrives via general-partner relationships rather than a proprietary origination engine. Given the absence of a public-facing platform, sourcing likely runs through private manager networks built around specific sector themes — cannabis, climate and biotech — that require specialized fund-manager access.
Does Houben Vermögensverwaltung still hold direct real estate?
Yes. The firm owns at least eight mixed-use assets across Munich's inner boroughs including Altstadt, Schwabing, Haidhausen and Maxvorstadt, according to Altss research. Those assets are managed separately from the fund-of-funds and venture program, functioning as an income-producing core portfolio that stabilizes the office's total return profile.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
The wealth originates from Burghart Houben's acquisition and management of multifamily and mixed-use properties across Munich's city center. That real estate activity pre-dates the 2011 formation of the family office and remains concentrated in the Bavarian capital, even as the investment strategy has broadened to European venture and growth-stage allocations.
Does the family office participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Both. Altss research confirms three investment formats: fund-of-funds commitments, direct co-investments, and special-purpose vehicles. The blend allows the office to anchor relationships with sector-specialist managers while selectively writing direct checks into companies that fit the stated sector map.
What investment sectors does the firm explicitly avoid?
The published sector focuses are wide — 14 tags from AgriTech to Supply Chain Logistics — and the office does not publicly list exclusion zones. However, the emphasis on emerging-theme venture (cannabis, psychedelics, climate) suggests the office avoids traditional buyout mega-funds and consumer-goods rollups, preferring manager networks in narrower technology verticals.
Why is a Munich-rooted family office domiciled in Liechtenstein?
Liechtenstein is a common domicile for European single-family offices seeking regulatory predictability and privacy within an EEA framework. Houben's Vaduz registration mirrors structures used by several German-speaking families that want EEA passporting benefits without placing the operating entity directly under BaFin supervision, especially useful when a fund-of-funds program brings cross-border regulatory exposure.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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