Berlin Property Portal

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t: +35 314 43 3237
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t: +49 152 242 11524

Special Projects

Our Special Projects Program Includes:

Buyers with the best contacts get the best deals. Without question this holds through in Berlin as elsewhere, access to the best properties filters down through the usual suspects Agents/Property Managers themselves, members of their families, their friends repeat buyers and finally the open market. Start building up your contacts now, we can help you establish your own "Network" of contacts.

Motto: "If you cannot accurately put a current market valuation on a property you intend to buy don't !!!!!!!"

Typical Services currently offered to international buyers.

Sale of complete or newly divided multi-Family Houses/Apartment Buildings, including:

The first option is the most efficient investment/management option; the property investment would normally have a single management company looking after the "Common Property", the individual units and tenancy contracts. The relatively high entry cost will reduce this option to the larger investor who should have their own permanent representative to look after all aspects of their Berlin investments.

Large multi-family properties are routinely re-registered as individual units and sold at a premium to the combined building valuation. With nearly 90% of residents renting their homes in Berlin buyers of these properties will usually be limited to investors with many agencies exclusively focusing on foreign investors who want to buy one or two flats. With a slow market this option has many pitfalls mainly relating to the situation once majority ownership goes from the original owner and now management power goes to the majority. Faced with this situation promoters tend to further discount the remaining properties thus undermining the original sales price of the first sold properties.

Disruption to the existing property management during the division of the property can lead to a dispirit mix of owner managers, newly appointed agents and the existing "Haus/Building" manager. The increased diversification of management results in higher overall management costs and lower returns than originally indicated.

"One Off" re-sale may suit a small investor but offer limited exposure, usually without any discount to the full market price and no potential economies of scale on management etc. Again anything special will be picked up by the small group of local opportunistic buyers.

Health Warning: beware of "Rent Pools"

Beware of "Rent Pools", promoters can try to disguise the true yield of a rental properties by establishing rent pools so that vacancies, interior repairs etc are spread across a property thus disguising the real true income of a buyers own property. By creatively establishing impractically high rent projections and use of standard multipliers, eg 15 x annual rent for sales price, buyers can be enticed to pay way beyond the real price for the property. The added value will be used in the short term to supplement any shortfall in current rental income. In time the promoters are hoping that future increases, complete occupation, will eventually start to reach the indicated current rent and the buyer may never be aware that there was a problem. Currently many of these products are beginning to show problems due to delays in the recovery of the rental market in Berlin and greedy over-optimistic projections. Where these are showing up the security that the guarantee has been secured against is totally insufficient and guess who's now left out of pocket. By all means take advantage of the economies of shared-management but always insist on full transparency on all costs and revenue with individual accounts held for each owner.

Property Fund Promotion

Property Fund promotion was more popular a few years ago when foreign interest was building in the Berlin Property Market. There has been a noticeable lack of any of these funds in recent times. These were run as "Closed Property Funds" which have been seen to be very poor investment vehicles in many emerging markets and have mostly now been withdrawn from the Berlin Property Investment sector.

Reason D'etre for the "Special Projects Group"

The Berlin Property Portal "Special Projects Group" is an informal network of Property Professionals and Investors specialising in the Berlin Property market. Members work together to create mutually beneficial activities, sharing information, provide services, expertise and create opportunities through the critical mass of the group. The "Special Projects Group" aim to reduce transaction, administration and 3rd party charges which can mean the first year or two of growth are absorbed before an investment gets into positive territory.

Current property promoters charge, as an additional cost direct from buyers or hidden within the sales price very large commissions (typically between 7% and 10%). This is doubly irritating for investors who are used to much lower rates and which are normally paid for by the property seller.

Among the areas of activities and services provided are:

Multi-Party purchase of Buildings/Apartment Block.

This allows smaller investors to access returns only available to complete property owners, in practice management cost savings of 40% can be achieved with this type of ownership.

A carefully selected property is matched with a group of investors who have similar investment criteria. Out "Special Projects" program brings together like minded investors who wish to capitalise on the scale benefits that only larger buyers usually acess. At the Berlin Property portal we aim to provide this service to buyers who register their interest based on projected level of investment and timescale. As a rule of thumb minimum individual investments for this will be of an order of €300K, somewhere between the cost of single unit purchases and a small Multi-Family Property purchase. Within the program we can provide a single management company to manage both the building and individual property holdings. The annual "House Management Meeting" would be held, and minutes recorded, in English at an agreed location in Berlin or the business centre of the investors. As all purchases will be linked to an individual package of properties investors have direct security and freedom to sell on part or all of their holding whenever they want to based on current market conditions.

We will provide the option of a maintenance guarantee for each of the packages promoted based on an audit of the property and its maintenance history.

Previous and Current Berlin Projects.

Bespoke Property Investment Management.

Where investors would like a single "On Site Contact" for their investments including the identification, purchase, financing and management of their properties.

Forced Sale (Zwangsversteigerungen) Purchase.

In 2007 approximately 3000 properties were sold at forced "Court Auctions" (Zwangsversteigerungen) in Berlin. These were the residue of "Non Performing" properties being forcibly sold as a result of the post re-unification "Berlin Bubble" of the late 1990's. It is expected that from now on this total will dramatically reduce even allowing for the "International Credit Crunch" as the fundamentals of the Berlin rental market support the most recent property investments.

Court Administered "Forced" Auction (Zwangsversteigerungen) Data for the Main Cities of Germany.

Direct Access to Bank Sales.

Many "Non Performing" properties have been taken under the direct management of Banks within and outside Berlin. With our extensive contacts within the banks, administration and management companies, we can identify investment packages that offer above average yield to the open market and thus have good growth potential.

Property Consolidation.

There are properties in Berlin which have become vacant through a combination of the bankruptcy of part owners, miss-management, long vacancies and poor maintenance. The properties tend to have multiple owners with completely different personal situations who are not in a position to address all the issues required to maximise the potential of their properties. By re-uniting these properties within a "Unified Ownership" the properties can be refurbished, re-let and run as fully performing investments at a large discount to the final open market valuation.

Access to a Specialist Berlin Property Finance broker.

Financial institutions in Germany do not generally provide finance for property purchases outside there local geographic market, and in particular in Berlin where many financial institutions were badly burnt in the late 1990's and early 2000. Thus even investors with existing contacts within the banking system outside Berlin will need to establish direct contacts with the Berlin representatives of these companies. We use a number of the primary financial institutions operating in Berlin and have a dedicated finance broker who will discuss finance options that are available to individual investors.

"One on One" walk through of the Berlin Property Market.

Members of our Special Projects group will provide mutual support and introductions to their own specialist area of activities. Newer entrants to the Berlin Property scene can join our periodic get-togethers and will be given a "One on One" insiders introduction to the workings of the Real Berlin Property market.

Access to the latest data on the Berlin Property Market.

Unlike many of the emerging, and non-emerging property markets, there is a wide range of data available for the Berlin property market which we have collated into current and emerging trends for the Berlin property market. There is an extensive information flow within the Special Projects Program membership which new members can access.

Network Development.

We aim to build a close network of investors, financiers and property professionals who wish to build a presence in Berlin. We are always keen to expand our Berlin based network of contacts, please complete our registration form, indicate your specific area's of interest and what services can be provided for our members.

Special Projects Registration.

For information on investment opportunities through our "Special Project" team please complete the registration form by clicking on the Register link. Your contact details will not be provided to any 3rd party without your specific advanced approval.