These assets are, as they will be finished and added to our portfolio, going to generate more rent for our business. On the other hand, we are looking constantly to dispose some of the rented assets, as we've done also in the past. You might see in the future that some rented assets go out of the portfolio in order to recycle the equity and to move it from a lower return asset to a high return asset. We have a good pipeline for new offices. We have in Cotroceni plots of land to develop another three phases: One Cotroceni Park, three, four, and five. We are looking actively for tenants in the market in order to build to suit their needs.
In parallel, we have secured also a plot in the northern part of the city on Julie Street, where we are pitching also a number of tenants, and we try to build to suit for them their headquarters on that site. Last year, especially in the second part, a lot of shareholders asked us what measures do we take for cost optimization. We took this recommendation very seriously. We started this year a very thorough cost optimization program. We try also to use AI where it's possible in order to optimize our work. We managed to cut a lot of unnecessary expenses, and we managed to decrease almost 20% the general administration cost for the first six months of the year. This is a concern for us also going forward for the second part of the year.
We hope to see some results on that also for the rest of the year. As part of this process, we decided also to relocate part of our team, financial, legal, architecture to a neighboring office building that we own. It's called the Eliade Tower. It's a building that was built in the 1980s, but a very good building which used to be in the portfolio of Globalworth before. It's a nice view to the lake, but the rent costs less than half than in this building. As part of this process, we decided also to cut the expense with the rent. Regarding shareholder value, the most important thing on which we focus is making profit for the shareholders. We think this is the most important thing that you can do as a company to create value for your shareholders.
You see, in the first half of this year, our profit reached almost €60 million gross profit, and we increased around 12% versus the first half of last year. Now, how we distribute this value to the shareholders, there are three ways which we see as distribution to the shareholders. The first one, and very important, is the reinvestment of the profits in new developments. Of course, there are the dividends that we are giving to the shareholders. Although we are not a dividend company, we are a growth company. Still, we are paying constant dividends to our shareholders. We want to continue also with our buyback program. We recently announced also a public tender offer program that we propose for approval to the general meeting of shareholders from October. You'll have the opportunity to ask more about this from our Chairman, Mr. Claudio Cisullo.
As an overall target that we have for the company, we plan to quadruple the value of the company over the next 10 years. This means we need to reinvest the equity of the company with a compounded annual return of 15% per year for the next 10 years in order to achieve this target. Thank you very much. I will let my colleagues continue.
Thank you very much, Victor. I would like now to ask, as I mentioned, for the very first time on the stage of One Capital Markets Day, I would like to invite our Chairman of the Board, Mr. Claudio Cisullo. How are you, Claudio?
Super good. How about you?
Very good.
You always look very happy.
Thank you.
I'll try to copy you on that. Let me see if I manage this.
I'm happy when we have a room full of investors, excited to hear about our plans. We have 20 minutes to discuss the PTO, among many things. I would like to start with a little bit about your involvement with One United Properties because we've never actually discussed this with our investors. You first became a client of One United Properties, then an investor, board member, and finally Chairman in 2021. I wanted to ask you, how did you get to learn about One? It's no surprise you're not a Romanian. You're a Swiss-Italian businessman. We're always happy to have foreigners investing in Romania. Why did you decide then to join the Board of Directors and finally become Chairman in 2021?
Thank you, Zuzanna. It's a big pleasure to be here today. My journey with One United Properties began, actually, through my broader activities in the Eastern European markets with my other companies. We had to decide for ChainIQ, which is the name, a procurement-managed company, where we place our nearshore center. We looked at markets like Poland, Hungary, Czech, Romania, and so on. We decided for Romania because there were many factors which we have seen there in terms of, let's say, the culture, the opportunity of the growth, the ability of enlarging the business, but also the workforce, which has a quite well, let's say, knowledge base and study base to involve and develop. That was basically more or less the beginning. I saw very fast the opportunity of the real estate market.
I was saying, "Okay, this country has for sure a big opportunity for the future." I was thinking on the 10-year space in the real estate market. I then started my investment company to buy apartments from One United Properties. That then brought me together to get to know the co-founders, Victor and Andrei. As in business, you can have the best product, you can have the best market. If the people would not be the right one, you cannot do anything. It's all about people, right? You're investing in people, not only in Romania, but everywhere in the world. I saw these two gentlemen, which made me a very unusual Romanian way business-wise. I was very thrilled, actually.
I said to myself, "Okay, I mean, the way how these two guys are thinking, are acting, are committed, they could be easily, in that regard, also Swiss, but be happy that you are Romanian because the Swiss are a little bit boring." Besides, I saw the project, like this one where we are here. I was fascinated about the architecture of this project, the style, how One United Properties is building and concepting their developments, which I said, "Okay, this is a game changer for Bucharest." I said, "Okay, I think I should have a more closer look at it." That then brought me that in November 2020, I had the opportunity to buy the first bench of shares from Victor and Andrei. In March, I joined the board at that time as well because the investment was not a small investment.
Usually, when the investment is quite enough, you should also have the right to be in the board to a little bit see what is going on and feel and bring your experience as well. In March 2021, I brought the second batch of the shares. I was elected as Chairman of the Board. This was before we did the IPO by mid-June 2021. All of that was not a coincidence, but it was based on my confidence in the company, the leadership, and the long-term strategy. I saw opportunity and also to help its governance as a global investors positioning as a transition into the public listed company in Romania. That's a little bit the storyline.
Thank you very much. We're very happy to have you share this part of the story because I think it's amazing. In the past, for example, we also had Marius Diaconu, who also went from a client to investor to board member. I think it speaks volumes to the quality of the product and also the relationship that all of you have with the company. As a reputable international investor, what are the advantages and the strengths, opportunities that you see both in the real estate, but also in the capital markets in Romania?
Romania represents or presents a compelling investment opportunity. I think this still stands, even though the world has changed a little bit, a little bit a lot, to be honest, since the last four or five years, actually in the last two, three years. Nevertheless, if you look at the country's GDP, according to the OECD economic outlook, the forecast was for this year, I think, 1.5% in 2025, and for 2026 is 2.4%, reflecting more than a stable, but improving, let's say, macroeconomic environment. If you look at other countries in Europe, they are definitely not that stable in terms of GDP growth. You look at France, you look at Germany, you look at Italy. You can look around. It's quite a very unstable situation. I think this is one point which I have been foreseeing at that time already. Of course, the growth was much higher.
While the Romania capital market remains relatively modest and currently representing only approximately 20% of the GDP, which is very well below the global and the European average, it still holds significant potential for expansion. We are proud as One United Properties to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange market. We believe that the market is poised for growth. That needs a little bit of effort as well because for foreign investors, it is not so easy to access the capital market in Romania. It's still, let's say, complicated. This definitely needs to change because it doesn't make any sense. I think if that's going to happen, then we will see even very exciting moments on the capital market in Romania. Among some attractive sectors is real estate for sure, which stands out as one of the several key drivers.
Especially the high home ownership rates compared to the other European countries. This is something which really is unbeatable when I speak with other countries and investors and partners and so on, saying that 90% of Romanians own real estate. I don't see where you find this again. That's something which is really telling you something. The economic fundamental positively influenced by the residential and commercial segments are definitely something also which is helping the GDP to grow as well, not to underestimate. Compared to other markets I'm active, Romania offers a unique combination of affordability and high growth potential, as I said before already. I believe that One United Properties is optimally positioned to profit from this potential. That helps us to be confident in terms of the forthcoming years.
Thank you very much. Back to the board. You mentioned about joining in 2021. How did the board evolve? We had some changes in the board. I think we have four years on the Bucharest Stock Exchange under our belt. What do you see as the board's main priorities right now to ensure the governance keeps up pace with the growth of the company while also protecting shareholders' interests?
Yeah, I mean, since the IPO in 2021, we made a lot of steps. Also, we brought a more international experienced body into the board, which of course helps in terms of the credibility also for outside investors of Romania, but also for Romanians. The board has very clear tasks and goals, which we need to make sure that we have a rigorous oversight and mechanism and allowing our practice with the global minimum standards. Ensuring the governance keeps pace with the company's rapid growth. I mean, the company is growing very rapidly. We just need to make sure that we maintain the transparency and the protecting shareholders' interest.
As you have heard before from Victor Căpitanu, shareholder value, it's absolutely the top topic for us to make sure that we have everything in line and done by the best effort to protect capital, that we do capital protection for our shareholders. We have also focused on ESG standards, even though, I mean, this ESG, it's a little bit a floating, or let's say a moving target, because if you were hearing ESG in the past years, ESG there, ESG this, ESG the other, World Economic Forum in Davos was all about ESG, ESG, ESG. Today, they even don't name any more ESG because somehow they disappeared. Nevertheless, I think there are some certain elements in the ESG which are very important. On this, we are focusing.
If we would do too much ESG, we would overwhelm our company in a way that we will have probably the best ESG, but not a productive and profitable business. That's why we try to maneuver it very diligently. At the end, I mean, for the Board of Directors, we are five independent board members and two executives. At the end, it's all about creating shareholder value and ensuring reliable governance structures. I mean, also that I need to say, the two gentlemen, the co-founders and the co-CEOs, they are not like I have seen in the past. I'm 41 years in the business as an entrepreneur by myself. Some of, let's say, entrepreneurs which build the business, and then there are coming some others in which are telling what to do. Not everyone can manage this well.
In that regard, I have to make a very big compliment to Andrei and Victor. They are doing it fantastic. Okay, you can imagine we have, of course, also quite intensive discussions, but that's good. Keeps us young, no facelifting. Everything in order. It's needed to get at the end to the best decision, which is for the company and the shareholders.
Thank you. Now we move to the main point on the agenda. I expect most of the questions today, and I already saw on the chat, are about the public tender offer announcement that we made. We convened a general meeting of shareholders for October to approve a PTO of up to €884 million, approximately $175 million, to buy back and subsequently cancel up to 20% of our shares. This by far made big waves in the media because it's one of the largest buybacks ever announced and by far the largest ever announced by an entrepreneurial company. Could you give us a little bit of color on what's the board's strategic reasoning behind this decision? Is it mainly about valuation or about governance, signaling confidence to the market?
Also, how do you respond to concerns that were voiced that such a large buyback would also be a step towards delisting the company from the Bucharest Stock Exchange?
Yeah, I mean, look, what we are doing here might be maybe new for the Romanian market, but for, let's say, very developed capital markets, this is just normal. Indeed, you know, €884 million is definitely the largest in Romanian history, I mean, deal history, PTO deal, and especially among an entrepreneurial company. Since our listing, One United Properties has made significant use of the capital markets tools, which is, by the way, a good, which is, by the way, for that easy tier, and securing financing as well, accelerating our growth, expanding our investor base. These are all needed instruments which help you to grow the company in the best possible way. Also, we established a long-term partnership.
With the PTO program, we are once again employing another instrument which the market, the capital market, and the FSA and the regulators and so on are giving us for delivering future value to our shareholders. At the end, again, as you have heard before, shareholder value stays in front of everything. This initiative is not a retreat from the stock exchange, just to make it clear. It's rather an opportunity to make full use of the mechanism which we have and the options for the equity base. While reaffirming our strong commitment to remain a transparent, forward-looking, and dynamic public listed company, I think this is something, even though the announcement was that we would aim until up to 20% of the shares. At least you need to have some goals. Let's see what will happen and in which way it will happen. Time will tell.
What is the rational behind it? You know, these kinds of instruments you basically use because of different elements. One of them is the valuation. We do not only believe the market undervalues the company in intrinsic growth. The valuation really looks something that when we discussed in the board, the share price was much more lower as well. We discussed it and we said we need to do something to reinforce the different elements in terms of also, as you mentioned before, signaling something to the market. At the end, the buyback is a signal of our confidence in our long-term strategy, the believing of our company in the segment where we are, in the way how we do business. Of course, you can do always better. That's no doubt everywhere. This is basically where some of the points we focus.
With the governance, we're reducing the float and optimize the company capital structure and improve, again, long-term shareholder value, return of equity. It's one of the points. Fair market value is one of the points. If you see that you do quarter by quarter excellent results, but your share price is not compensating it, you need to do something. You really need to do something when you're trading 2.8 times below the net asset value or at least the fair market value. Then, I mean, something has to be done. It is also unfair in some way. It is also a signal to our investors, because naturally, one of the key motivations behind this public tender offer (PTO) is also a clear signal to our actual investors, but also for our future investors. Let's see where the journey goes.
Last but not least, our financial strength, it's a strong financial performance which we have for the big wheel which we are turning. I'm just living just opposite of this building. When I'm looking out of the building, I see only cranes, and their cranes are all from One United Properties. I mean, not the cranes, but the work for the cranes. Having 20,000 plus people working every day on the ground to develop these projects, this is a big contribution, also a social contribution to the country, to the city, which is not there as much as we would wish. At the end, we are following our pattern. We will not let us distract by no meaning. The PTO is definitely one of those elements which we strengthen our position. We just want to nail down those points which I just mentioned before.
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions more about the PTO, which I think also, I hope that everybody respects that I cannot make too much comments on this. I do not want to enter in any situation of influencing market prices and getting against the law. Therefore, I can maybe if there are questions, I will try to answer whatever that are. Nevertheless, we need to be very careful on how we are saying. By the way, we are working, of course, for the PTO. There are clear rules, governance. FSA is involved. We involved them very fast, very early in the discussion. We do not want to make any mistakes. We are looking forward now for our next steps on the PTO.
The next step, 15th of October, general meeting of shareholders. We invite our shareholders already in advance to this event. You mentioned about the pipeline under construction. We're talking about €1.5 billion that at the current moment is being developed by One United Properties across the residential and commercial segments. This brings me to a question that I already saw on the chat for you and also a very important one. One has a very diverse pipeline: residential, commercial, hospitality segment. How does the board decide the capital allocation between reinvesting into developments, distributing dividends, doing buybacks, PTOs? How do you balance this big buyback with the need to fund acquisitions and developments in the pipeline?
That's a very good question. By the way, all the questions are good. It is a very delicate balance. I have to say, we have with the co-founders and the co-CEOs two unbelievable super profis, experts. They know the best. In the board, we do not interfere too much in terms of decision. Is this project now a project which is worse or not worse to do? These two gentlemen are covering all the interests of the shareholders because, of course, they are also big shareholders, remain big shareholders. We, of course, discuss. We are informed by the CEO updates, what is going on and so on. The allocation, the allocation of the capital or, let's say, cash allocation in projects and so on, we completely rely on our co-founders and co-CEOs. They proved over the last, I don't know, 10, 12 years, whatever is the... How long is it?
20 years, maybe. Since a long time, they proved their capability. Again, it is the allocation. As I said before, it's a delicate balance. We have a very good CFO, Cosmin Samoila, which is doing a fantastic job. By the way, not only him, the whole team, the management team is doing an amazing job. Otherwise, you cannot produce these results. For our investor, it's our responsibility to maximize the shareholder returns, which you heard before by Victor Căpitanu. In the light of this, there are certain capital allocations which are based on certain KPIs which are chosen then with a lot of other factors. We in the board, we concentrate ourselves in terms of the boring governance, which nobody likes so much, but it's needed. We are looking very carefully, of course, on the share price.
The dividend policy is also something which the board always has a very clear focus on it. You heard before, we are a growing company, not a dividend company. I think at the end, it's a mixture between all of these three elements to take the best out of it. Also here, we do not need to invent the wheel new. There are many, many, many, many, many thousands of companies which are affected by those kinds of discussions. At the end, we have a broad range of financing options, and we ensure that we leverage the most suitable instrument for delivering the optimal value for our shareholders. That's basically what we are doing.
Before I go to the last question, we have two questions on the chat that I would like to pass to you. The first one is, how would you argue this intention to buy back 20% of the share capital, considering that the development margin that One targets is 35%? Does it mean that the return on the buyback of the shares has a better return than the development margin of 35%?
The good news is both of them have a very good return. That's why we try to take both of them to have the better return. I mean, this is not a correlation between the two numbers. It is a fair point to point out these two numbers, but it's not a correlation. The correlation is only one that we believe, we see, we believe, and we know that the company is producing profitable business. Therefore, we aim that if the capital market doesn't adore these or adhere to these values, then we do it by ourselves at the end. I mean, it's a contribution to all our investors, which are today into the company, because reducing the shares from the market means a higher value from them as well.
Exactly. I think this is an important message that one doesn't forbid basically the other. The company can do both the buyback and development. These are not selective. One more question. Last year, you raised €70 million through the capital increase, indicating the need for expansion. How should investors interpret the current buyback that could reach up to several tens of millions of euros? Do you no longer need the money?
We always need money. We always need money. I mean, look, the situation is a different one. You know, maybe, yeah, the situation is a different one. When you are building projects, it's not that you start today and you finish tomorrow. Usually, it's a two, three-year journey. You are faced with certain elements which are not seen in a business plan. Might be a shortage of, let's say, or whatever, of products. Might be related to certain, let's say, development, unexpected involvement. Might be on permitting. Might be on many factors. That's why this business, it's like, and that's why I was pointing before Andrei and Victor or Victor and Andrei, that they are real experts, you know, but they also can only work with the expectation which you can expect.
At the end, to the question, we also allocate our balance sheet in a way that we don't show the full turnover when we sell the project. This comes over the time. The closer it goes to the delivery, the higher it is. If you see the incoming cash out of the sold products, which is incoming in the next, I don't know, two years, something like, please correct me, €300 million or €400 million. I mean, €400 million, right? Euros, not RON, not Chinese RMB, euros, are coming in. We need to do something with that. What is best to do with that? To that, it means that we invest in our company and in projects. We also said to ourselves, because the world is changing quite fast, we don't want to put more projects in our mouth than we can bite.
We want to be prudent, but this is also an act which is a little bit difficult. It's like you say to somebody, "Drive slowly. I'm in the hurry." It doesn't work. This is exactly the magic behind it. There we try to balance. Therefore, the commitment into the company, into the share buyback, into the public tender offer, and with €400 million coming in and managing our future projects, which you will hear then later today when you have the interview with both of them, they will for sure give you a little bit more insights and you get a better feeling. Yes, we need the money and we allocate the money in the best way, in the best possible way. I hope I answered the question.
I think you did. Thank you very much, Claudio. I have one last question. I have a privilege of meeting the board every quarter, delivering updates on our shareholding capital markets evolution. We analyze the shareholding of the company, and I wanted to ask you, how would you like to see the shareholding of One United Properties in five years? More institutionals, more retail investors, more foreign investors? What's your perfect mix?
I basically stopped to think in five-year terms, to be very honest, because all the time when I was putting the five years, I was disappointed already in the first year somehow. Nevertheless, as I said, in general, the Romanian capital market remains underrepresented. This is a fact. The coverage afforded by the international investors will be very welcomed. We have a lot, especially Victor, myself, you, we have a lot of discussion with foreign investors and potential investors. They are looking at the Romanian side quite sometimes a little bit unbalanced. The liquidity is the most important. Unliquid markets are not a good selling point. This, again, doesn't help any company in Romania in terms of attracting more international investors. We will not rest on doing that. We will keep going on.
I would not give you any expectation in terms of I would like to have more other retail investors or institutional investors in % and so on. I'm for sure not doing this. I have something in my mind, but it stays in my mind. At the end, the right balance is one thing. We also have long-term investors which are committed to the company in good times. When I'm saying in bad times, I mean in bad times in terms of the share price. They are here and you see some of them also in this room, including the co-founders, myself, and others, because at the end, it's a journey and it's a long-term looking journey. We focus more on that. At the end, I think everyone is invited, being a retailer or an institutional investor, to join our journey.
Maybe one point which we forgot before, or I forgot, is you have seen in the communication that the public tender offer which we are doing, it might be a question as well which was raised up. If not, I will do it right now. The Board of Directors, including the co-founders, myself, and my colleagues, do not participate in the public tender offer program. That's a very important message as well. We do not have any intention to cash out or such things. We were committed, we are committed, and we remain committed.
I think that's the perfect last message for our session. Thank you very much, Claudio. Thank you for coming for the first time to our Capital Markets Day and doing this Q&A session with me. I invite you to, of course, stay for the remainder of the conference. Now I would like to invite Beatrice Dumitrașcu. We're going to start.
Thank you, Zuzanna. I will stay. Sorry that I, for one time, was the one which screwed up the timing. Normally, I'm the timing pope, but now I was the father.
I think it was worth it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. Beatrice Dumitrașcu, the CEO of Residential Division.
Hello everyone. Okay, so welcome to Capital Markets Day. Today, I'll walk you through our residential business. I will invite you to know more about the strategy, our early performance, latest performance, about the market fundamentals, and as well about our pipeline and outlook. What is important to know, first of all, is that our goal is to show you more than numbers. We would like to show you the long-term value that we can have, the potential of growth, because One is continuing to shape the landscape of this city. Let me start with the strategy. What you see here is that One is continuing to consolidate its premium leadership. We have a scaling large and accessible master plan, which is successful. We have proven over the years that we have pricing power and a great absorption of our product on the market.
We also have to share with you that technology is something that is going to lead us further with great opportunities. We intend that in the next 12 to 24 months, to have predictive sales velocity, to have pricing guidance that would lead us and would be translated in higher conversion and lower cost on acquisition, lower customer acquisition cost, which is very much important. The digital customer journey, we know that it's very important for our clients. We know that we attract a lot of clients just because we do deliveries, that the clients are recommending us because, as you can see, at any launch of our developments, we do sell a lot in the first months. We'll have, after this digital journey improved, more handovers done faster and as well a better NPS, which means a net promoter score.
The net promoter score brings us all the time new clients because if you are recommended by your clients that bought from you, usually you gain more audience. We stay committed to quality, innovation, sustainable living because they are our keys to brand as the brand differentiators. We have to mention that technology is not the only strategy that we have. It's not only the most important thing that has to happen to us. Also, the community and our partnerships are very valuable. We have alliances with leading brands in Hastings Lifestyle. We do take care of our One community that we are step by step raising and nurturing with events that are done for them because we know for sure that this is translated to long-term value and brand equity, of course. Our latest performance reflects that we have a great strategy, reflects the fact that we are resilient.
You can see that we have sold 301 residential units, 332 parking units. We have generated €95.4 million sales, pre-sales, and sales in the first half of this year. This shows us that we have the ability to maintain a solid pace of transaction, even in a more selective market environment. We have a pricing power that we have discussed earlier because it is strong. We have a 20% year-on-year increase on the price per square meter. This shows us that we have attractiveness on One development because we do both, combining premium positioning and accessible master plans. Deliveries are reinforced. We have a strong position on the market. Our customer trusts our brand. We have seen that before. You have seen as well that everything that is launched is very attractive to the market, even though the price has increased by 20% per square meter, as I've said earlier.
Again, we have to underline that we have a robust sales velocity. You have seen that we have 79% of our stock already sold, which means that what was mentioned by Claudio Cisullo earlier in exact figures, you can see here that we have €364.4 million contracted inflow secured until 2027, out of which €71 million were already collected in H1. The company enjoys a very high cash velocity and visibility and financial predictability, which are two of the most important things for us. Behind the results, we see a strong market. We have strong market fundamentals. You can see that in Bucharest, we have a structured housing deficit. 70% to 80% of the housing stock was built before the 1990s, which means that we have a major replacement cycle towards modern energy-efficient communities. We also know that we have the highest home ownership rate in the EU, 96%.
This means that we are both supporting trading up and replacement demand. Also, what we know is that we are stable on the affordability for mortgages with fixed rates of 5% to 6% in 2025. That led to a growth of 24% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. This is the conclusion. We have an active market depth. Prices among Europe in Bucharest are in the top three as being affordable. You can see that our price per square meter is around €1,757. Other major capitals in Europe are like Paris, €9,500; London, over €10,000; Luxembourg, over €11,000. The market depth is there. In Bucharest and Ilfov, there were 2,500 units sold. Only 35% we have on national transactions in the country. Our growth runaway, it's strong. You can see that we have under construction 3,884 residential units with a JDV of $1.44 billion.
We add to that our land bank, which is JDV $2.2 billion. This is adding more than 9,000 residential units to be built in the future. Our next milestone, because we do have one, is to surpass 1 million sqm deliveries within the next 12 months. We also know that we have the opportunity of a massive share gain. Why? Because we know that in our city and Ilfov as well, it's only 2,500 units sold, as I said earlier. We have a very balanced portfolio with both premium projects and large accessible master plans. We know that technology, it's something that is going to bring us higher conversion, faster velocity, and lower cost on acquisition, lower customer acquisition cost. The outlook, it's there.
We know definitely that we have a structural demand, a scalable pipeline, which means that we can sustain a growth visibility for over the next 10 to 15 years. To conclude, what we know today is that One United Properties is combining a scalable pipeline with strong market fundamentals, with a strong commitment to technology, to innovation, and good quality. We stay strong. We strongly believe that the market is going to be focused on growing. We have the well-positioned to get more market share while we are going to strengthen our premium position. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Patrice. Please join me on the couch. I have several questions for you. I also see our investors have questions for you. We have actually 11 minutes, so we'll be straight to the point. First question, you mentioned uptake in price per sqm in the first half of 2025 versus last year, 20%, which is very significant. Could you give us a little bit of explanation? Why do we see such a big increase in the sales price versus last year? Is it about the demand? Is it about the supply? Is it about the offering that you and your team are managing right now?
You gave the response already. It's about the demand. It's about that we have a lack of stock on the market. It's also about the product, because if you have a good product, if you have all the benefits and all the attributes that I mentioned before, saying that we have a great location, we do have a great mixture, we do address two different types of segments of market, this makes you have a good product that it's all the time on the market. Clients are willing to buy from you. There are a lot of things that are completing this increase of the price because it's due to the fact that we do not have a lot of offer on the market. As well, we have a great product.
What is also very interesting, and we've seen this, investors are asking us. In the last financial report for the first half of 2025, as of June 30, 79% of what you had to sell has already been sold. This is the highest pre-sales level we've ever accomplished at One United Properties, which is impressive. It also brings the question, now you have 1,250 units available for sale. Actually, you did. You did. Now you have less. You did as of June 30. Is it enough? Do you have plans to bring new developments to the market this year?
We do have plans to bring new developments on the market in the next 6 to 12 months, like One City Club and One Cotroceni Towers. I know that everybody's talking about Rocar, which is One City District, but it's going to be in 2027, as I said before. We are paying a lot of attention to our stock because we cannot give all we have on the market. We do have a pipeline which is huge. We do have the stock which can be placed on the market very soon, but we don't need that. We have to have a customer which is dedicated to buying what we are offering. Even though the market is not very high, we have a very good market. We've seen in all the reports, not only ours, that we don't have a huge price on the market, not in any of the segments.
What we know is that we have to pay attention to our portfolio. Right now, we have a bit over 1,000 residential units under construction and about 50 units which are finalized. We have to pay attention because construction has its cycle. You've seen that it takes two to three years, maybe more, to build a development. You have to put a lot of energy, a lot of money there, and you have to be concentrated on delivering good product. We are coming up next, but it's according to our strategy. All these decisions are according to our strategy.
One of the questions I also saw come up on the chat is a VAT increase. By far, 2025 is the year of fiscal changes that our investors actually would like to know if they also affected you. For those of you who may not know, the VAT in Romania increased from August 1 from 19% to 21%. That also covers developments. The question is, one, did you see impact on sales, a slowdown of sales starting August 1? Two, what was your strategy in terms of pricing with the VAT increase? Did One absorb those 2% or did you pass those to the clients?
We've been here before. It was the 5% to 9%. The only thing that happened at that point, like now, was that it was a little bit of delay on decision for the client. We are selling the same, but the only thing is that it takes a little bit more time for the client. We do pay to the client, of course. We didn't do something like decreasing our pricing. We do have our strategy that we have promised to our investors, and we are not changing that. The only thing that is changing to us, because I've seen this all these years, because fiscal changes all the time happen, this was one of the most important. What we see is that the clients are coming back to us. They are just delaying their decision.
Nothing changed in terms of this thing because we had a hard year during, we had the elections, and this was tough. Also, the financial changes. The only change that we've seen is a delay on the decision. That was all.
A question from our chat. Could you provide a breakdown of the buyer profile for One United Properties residential development, specifically the proportion of end users purchasing single unit versus investors acquiring multiple apartments?
What you have to know, first of all, is that there are investors that are buying one unit as well. Those ones can be investors as well. The fact is that because we are proud to say that we have a very good product on the market, and you can see that we are reshaping the landscape in residential in Bucharest, we do not have as many investors as people think. For example, right now, I can say that we have clients that are buying only one unit as an investment or two units as an investment. Of course, we did have clients that bought 30 units, but they are very rare. It is not passing, I don't know, a few %.
Thank you. I remember when I joined One United Properties after the IPO, it was the concept of 30 plus 70 payment option that was introduced together with entering the medium to upper segment. For those of you who don't know, until 2021, One was selling units with full prepayment. As of 2021, with the launch of One Cotroceni Park, the company introduced 30% prepayment at the signing and 70% upon the delivery. Could you detail estimate what percentage in the last four years for the delivered development, such as One Cotroceni Park, what % of clients actually contracted mortgages?
We have a premium brand. What you have to know is that we were having five equal installments up. We were finalizing the developments or concentrating them till it was delivered, the product. You'll be surprised, but we don't have more than 10% because the product, it's good, and people are trying to put their money somewhere to be sure that they are gaining a lot of money in the end, of course, because it's safe to do investment in residential. Most of the people are buying in cash. You will see that we have a lot of people buying in cash. As well, in the future, we know that what we predicted is not going to raise a lot.
The premium affordable. That was the big announcement of our last year's April 2024 Capital Markets Day, which you mentioned, the former Rocar One City District. It will host 3,000 residential units. I want to ask you, this will be our closing question. How will this development differ from what One has been doing, firstly from what One has been doing in other developments, but also what other developers have been doing in Bucharest? It is, after all, for you, for your sales team, it's a novelty, this premium affordable segment. How do you want to address the clients? How do you want to differentiate the product on the market? How do you want to keep the premium perception that One is continuing to be active in the luxury segment?
First of all, one, it's a premium brand. It doesn't matter where you locate your future development, you deliver premium for that segment. The differences will be seen because where we go, we create communities with schools, kindergartens, and other facilities. With commercial spaces, they are very much needed because you do need a 15-minute city, so you can do whatever you need in that area. What is important also to know is that, 13 years ago, I do remember that the difference between other blocks of flats, even though there were one or two of ones, there were the windows which were larger. There were the facades which were ventilated. There were the balconies that were in glass and so on. We are trendsetters everywhere we go. I'm definitely sure that we will set up a new trend where we are going to go to the accessible segment.
I can't wait. I will not ask you about the pipeline because you already announced it. I think we have some great news there, great developments coming to our investors, to the market. Thank you very much, Beatrice.
Thank you.
Thank you for this chat. I will now invite Mihai Păduroiu, CEO of the Office Division, our second core segment, to deliver his presentation.
Hello everybody. Thank you for taking the time and being here with us. I will be very fast going through just a few slides in order to allow more room for questions and for the interactive and engaging discussion with Zuzanna. Just a few key developments from the office and commercial portfolio within One United Properties. I will start with the current strategy, which is very straightforward. We are today in a very fortunate position, being able to focus on consolidating the existing collection of occupiers. We have today over 200 mainly multinational corporate players within our office portfolio. Main focus, consolidation, then of course, expansion. We are very carefully and strategically looking at new locations as demand post-COVID stabilizes in Bucharest. Part of this strategy, we are also exploring further build-to-suit developments similar to the one we are currently building for Infineon.
Also looking at regional cities, Romania is very fast developing also outside of Bucharest. This creates opportunities for secondary office hubs to develop around the main economical centers in the country, places like Constanța, Sibiu, Cluj, Iași.
You know, we've seen tremendous growth in the past years as well. That's always on our radar, exploring opportunities for office development. Of course, something that Victor also mentioned, we are looking again very strategically and carefully at asset divestment in order to recycle the equity and always make sure that we deliver very good margins for our shareholders and investors. A few key developments. Number one, today the entire office and commercial portfolio is virtually fully leased. I use the word virtually because there's always some movement in terms of tenancy and footprint. That means that there's always a company that is growing, maybe someone else is contracting. There's always something like 500 sqm here and there that is being passed on from one occupier to the other. It's like a living organism having such a large community of occupiers. Today, after five years, we are virtually fully leased.
Another very important aspect, which is sometimes quite difficult to underline in our financial reports or just in our overall communication, but is a critical element, is the weighted average lease duration. Every lease agreement obviously has a duration. This duration is directly linked to the performance of the asset. Obviously, the longer the duration is, the more valuable the asset becomes. We are very fortunate to have an above-market weighted average lease duration across the entire portfolio. This is essential for shareholder value because, as I said, the lease duration is in direct relation with the valuations of each asset and, of course, the entire portfolio. Going forward, we will be launching soon the One Community app.
We have always targeted the value creation within the ecosystem of our portfolio, bringing together the office occupiers, the residential function, and also the retail and the amenities, which have proven, especially in the past years, to be one of our strong points, to be one of our major attraction and retention factors for our occupiers. The One Community app will continue to support this ecosystem, will provide the residents and the talent of our occupiers with a broad range of benefits, direct communication, and many other things. We will follow up with more on that as we get closer to the launch date. We are in asset management, always looking at cost optimization, of course, but also we are exploring ways to deploy AI in order to obviously make everything more efficient and cost-effective.
As you will see in the last point that I touched upon here, operational expense has become a major factor in terms of the decision-making process of each occupier. Basically, that means that an asset is preferred if it can provide lower operational costs for the occupier. That means service charge, utilities, and so on. Luckily, with our in-house innovation, design, and technical specifications, we are able to provide a very competitive OpEx level for our occupiers, even with all the developments in the past years, which have pushed all the costs up. This is, again, one of the strong points of our portfolio, especially going forward as the assets in the market become older and older. The new assets with sustainable and innovative technical specs will become more and more valuable.
In terms of results, at the end of the first half of the year, we've seen a sustained level of new relocations attracted into the portfolio. Maybe the most important was the relocation of NN. After almost 20 years, they left their location in Opera Center and chose One Cotroceni Park as their new home. This is very important as NN is one of the most complex organizations when it comes to the workplace and the way they treat the fit-out and everything which is related to their office. This was a great deal for us and also for them, of course. Another important aspect, which is, again, maybe sometimes overlooked, we are continuously involved in a prolongation process with all of our occupiers.
Basically, that means that every year we proactively approach the occupier community within our portfolio in order to make sure, number one, all their needs are met always, and number two, that they intend and that they have a clear strategy to stay in the portfolio. This allows us to convert a lot of prolongations, ensuring what I was mentioning earlier, the weighted average lease duration, which then creates more value for the assets and the portfolio. In terms of cost, as Victor Căpitanu said, we ran a substantial cost reduction program also within the portfolio. We were able to achieve substantial administration cost reduction, which again drives our margin to a higher level. Collection is also a very important item. Sometimes when, let's say, the macroeconomic outlook isn't great, collection immediately is adjusted. We see that with competitors.
In general, luckily, collection for us has been great even during the past years, which we saw different types of macroeconomic challenges. This is very important for the cash flow of the company. We are continuously driving community efforts. The One Community app is a great example of that. Our community team is constantly working to create engaging events for the talent of the occupiers. This is, if you would like, a soft factor, but for the occupiers, it's very important. That really creates a very strong relationship between us and them. It also creates certain habits for the talent, which then become very difficult to change in a positive way. If someone then gets a suggestion to relocate, they will obviously not be in favor of that. Again, it supports our efforts to keep our occupiers in the portfolio.
In terms of pipeline, we are now focused on identifying the right opportunities for the future phases in One Cotroceni Park. Also, in the north, as infrastructure develops, office development is very, very linked to the public infrastructure. The new metro line in the north of Bucharest will definitely play a major role also when it comes to our office strategy. It's very important to underline the fact that in terms of new office development, we are taking a very cautious approach, meaning that we are not going to start any opportunistic or any speculative developments. We are only going to start developments based purely on pre-leases, very similar to what we did with Infineon.
This will ensure that we can have immediate access to bank financing and basically have a very long financial overview over the entire performance of the construction and then the asset as it becomes income generating. As I mentioned, we are looking at secondary cities as well. Also, something very important, which I always like to emphasize, is the fact that everything that we develop and that we design today incorporates cutting-edge innovations, which really make a big difference. I know it's sometimes difficult to see this in the financials or to really understand how it works, but this is why we are here. For example, incorporating technologies like GeoExchange and the Infineon building is a great example of that.
It really sets us apart and really creates a unique competitive advantage for us as a designer and developer of ultra-prime office buildings, which we see now that is the future. Looking at core markets, which I always like to follow in Western Europe or even in the U.S., you will notice that while the demand profile has shifted dramatically, the deals that are getting done, the buildings that are being sold or built today are highly innovative buildings in great locations. This is what we are also focusing on. As I said, we strongly believe this is the way to go in the future.
Thank you very much, Mihai. I'll invite you now to join me. I think you delivered a very good presentation because I have a lot of questions for you also from our audience. I'll start with, I would like to make the arch, the parallel to our 2024 Capital Markets Day when you also held a presentation. Back then, you flagged low supply being the main driver of the pricing in the commercial segment. Has this played out? How is the demand today and how do you see it going forward? There are not many office buildings being built today in Bucharest. Does it actually make sense to build new office buildings in Bucharest today?
That's a great point to touch upon and to start our discussion. First of all, yes, supply is at an all-time low in Bucharest today, and it will continue to be so for the next three to five years. This, of course, has a tremendous consequence for us as an office landlord with standing assets, with a great new portfolio, sustainable, fully let, because obviously the market is shifting towards the landlord side. It creates an advantage for all the existing portfolios, including ours, especially with all the competitive advantages that we have that I mentioned also earlier. This also creates pressure on the rents to increase, which again is a great factor that allows us also to increase the income, not only based on indexation, which is there anyway, but also based on the lack of product on the market. We have done so in the past two years.
If you look at the headline rent evolution of our portfolio, it has been growing substantially. This creates room for opportunities for new development. Definitely, as a conclusion, the market is shifting towards a landlord market. That creates for us as well a very comfortable position.
How do Bucharest yields compare to other Central and Eastern European markets like Warsaw or Prague? You mentioned divestments. Is Bucharest an attractive market for investors in office assets?
That's one of my favorite discussion points because I attend a lot of conferences also in the region, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna. We are always making a positive case for Bucharest, especially for Romania in general. The yield spread is one of the best examples. You see other developers like CTP in industrial or Globalworth taking a big advantage because of this with their pan-European portfolios. Basically, what this means is the fact that Bucharest is the largest capital in the CEE. It has the highest potential to grow. It has the lowest taxation, lowest average real estate price, lowest fit-out cost per sqm. It has many, many advantages, cultural advantages as well, talent pool, and so on. It's a very, very long list. At the same time, it has the lowest new and let's say A-class sqm of office per capita. At the same time, it has the highest yield.
This yield, if you look at the fundamentals, doesn't really make sense except for the country risk. The spread is too high. If you, let's say the yields today in Bucharest are between 6% and 7%, because some might argue, but let's say it's 6% to 7%. Warsaw is 5% to 6%, and Prague is even below 5% to 6%. While their talent pool is lower, the market is three times more developed in terms of sqm. Competition is very, very high. We've seen this in Warsaw, especially many times that a fund goes in, they buy a building, and the occupier in two years goes next door. The asset manager in New York is like, "Okay, so what do we do now?" This never happened in Bucharest, which again is another argument for the investors to come here. It is just a matter of time.
This is the message until this yield spread contracts. Bucharest will be on the same level as Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and the other CEE capitals. This creates a huge opportunity for the investors to basically place capital in a collection of assets which are great performing, but will also have a valuation upkick once the yield compresses. Only from the yield compression you tend to have a substantial potential future growth in value of our portfolio. I'm a very strong believer in that. This also attracts more and more institutional investors. To answer the second part of the question, we believe that if a deal makes sense in terms of profitability in order to recycle the equity, we are looking at divesting some of the assets in our income-generating portfolio.
Thank you. This was one of the important questions. Another one, you talked about build-to-suit deals. Last year we had a big announcement about Infineon. You talked in detail about our Capital Markets Day. Does this mean that One United Properties will no longer do speculative developments, meaning starting development of an office asset without having at least, let's say, at minimum 50%?
To be honest, definitely our strategy today is to avoid that. Unless it's a very small asset, then it makes sense. Otherwise, no. We are only looking at developing based on pre-leases because that immediately allows us to access bank financing. Everything is very straightforward and very visible for the entire cycle of development and the lease cycle. Office development is profitable and is very, very stable and very easy to model and forecast for a very long term. This is the, let's say, the beauty of commercial and office development. You are looking at long periods of time after development with just asset management effort and a very predictable income. Because the initial cost is very high, you are fully reliant on bank financing. Therefore, you need a solid leasing base when you start.
Otherwise, it can make sense, but it's a bit more risky and a lot more stressful. I believe going forward, this is our strategy. Yeah.
You mentioned in your slides today secondary cities like Cebu and Constanța as places for potential expansion, also for the office division. How deep is the demand for prime office development in those markets?
You are Polish, right? We always believe in the Polish model in terms of infrastructure development, also commercial office development. I think it's one of the great examples in the past 10 years across the entire European Union. The geography helps. You will see in Poland that there is a collection of 10 regional cities. You have Tri-City, and then you have even another seven cities which have developed as regional office hubs. This has a great, great contribution towards the entire national economy. We've seen this in Romania as well with places like Timișoara, Cluj, and Iași. We strongly believe that in the next years, following the development of the country and following what happened in Poland especially, other secondary cities will develop.
I can tell you from our conversations with occupiers that there is always this question that comes up, like, "This is great, but we need something in Brașov. Do you have anything?" or, "This is very nice," or, "We need something in Sibiu," or even in the more developed areas like Cluj. Cluj today, again, has a very, very low modern office supply. There isn't almost anything substantial under construction in terms of office. That also is the second largest market after Bucharest for office in Romania. I think the country will offer also a lot of opportunities. Of course, these will be smaller tickets, maybe 10,000 sqm, but this also creates a lower risk profile. I believe a lot in Constanța as well. I think with the evolution of the port and the new highway network and the overall geopolitical situation, Constanța will develop a lot.
It has almost zero modern office. That will create very good opportunities for us.
Thank you. Two questions about the numbers. What is the occupancy rate for the properties under management for the commercial division?
As I said, we are virtually at 100%. Of course, there is always like 500 sqm that comes up and is taken over by someone that is growing or something like this. Having such a large portfolio, as I said, is like a living organism. There's always something going on in terms of occupier footprint. Someone is contracting, someone is growing, someone is buying someone else, and this creates someone is consolidating and so on. We are virtually at 100%.
What is the weighted average lease duration of the office and commercial portfolio? What is the market benchmark?
I can tell you that, for example, One Tower, the weighted average lease duration is close to seven years, which is one of the highest levels in the market. Usually, with an asset collection which is substantial, so over, let's say, 100,000 sqm of gross leasable office area, the average is around four years. In One Tower, we are at seven. In One Cotroceni Park, which is more than half of the portfolio, we are at six years. This is something very, very important. I believe we should underline this more because this shows you the stability of the income profile for the long term.
The last question, I think we already heard the answer, but what is, in your view, the most important deal of your division so far in 2025?
As I said, for the first half, it's definitely the relocation of NN to Cotroceni and the prolongation of Superbet, which is one of our anchors also in Cotroceni. We also prolong Sanador here, one of the anchors in One Tower. That's notable as well. September comes with a lot of deals in the office market. We have finalized additional deals that we will announce by the end of the year. We will have a newcomer into the portfolio, a new company setting up in Romania, a huge $7 billion corporation, and also another healthcare giant that has signed with us. We will be announcing some more very, very, very important transactions. The sizes are not that impressive, but the name itself and the fact that such companies choose us as their partner when entering Romania, when entering Bucharest, I think is very, very important.
It shows because these people, they are very educated. They have hundreds of ultra-modern offices around the world. They have dedicated teams for workplace, and they make very, very educated choices. They run processes for more than a year. When they benchmark, they make a lot of measurements, comparisons. They run very competitive processes. When they finally choose a location, a developer, it's very important because it shows the level of quality, the technical specs, and also the professionalism of the team and the trust that they have in that brand.
Thank you very much, Mihai. We have a lot to look forward to for the Office Division. I would like now to invite Riyad Abi Haidar, who's going to deliver a presentation about the Hospitality Division.
Thank you. Thank you, Mihai. Good morning. Setting the groundwork for One Hospitality Division, I will have a clear presentation about why we're tapping into hospitality, what's our plans, and where we sit in our strategy. Our entry into lifestyle hospitality, mainly our vision is to deliver premium lifestyle hospitality experience in Romania, especially in Bucharest. Mainly, we take the lead in Eastern Europe. We are One United Properties as the innovator and the pioneer in developing lifestyle hotels in Eastern Europe. Our foundation for goals, strategic launch in Bucharest, leading the introduction of international hotel brands to Eastern Europe. As mentioned, we are the first developer to bring Mondrian Hotel to Eastern Europe and especially to Bucharest, which is a premium lifestyle from Ennismore Accor brand. As well, Hoxton, which is also a lifestyle hotel brand from Ennismore.
We are the pioneer to sign with them the MOU and to develop it in Bucharest. Why are we doing this? Why are we entering into hospitality? For real estate developers, premium real estate developers as One United Properties, residential offices, hospitality, it complements the portfolio and it builds a strategic alliance with a global, international, well-positioned brand. We can see the global hotel market is going fast, $25 billion up to $40 billion in 2030, which is 7.1% yearly growth. We want to find very good opportunities, especially in Europe, as it's going from $8.2 billion to $12.1 billion. This complements our vision for 2030. The European luxury hotel market is to reach $68.3 billion by 2032. Here as well, Romania is following. The average growth yearly in Romania is 7.83%, which is above the European market.
Other data is Romania is up to $3.6 billion in 2030 investment in developing luxury hotel and lifestyle hotels, which is quite solid. One has a big opportunity here. We capitalize on rising demand for branded lifestyle. We are studying as well to develop a mixed-use project with international brand, branded residence. As well, position One as leading lifestyle hospitality developer in Romania. Leader in our partnership, not in the number of rooms. We are building strategic partnership with strategic players globally in the market, in the hospitality market. Ennismore is one of the global players in lifestyle, the premium player in lifestyle hotel development. Execution strategy and partnership. Strategic partner, as mentioned, Ennismore, global leader in lifestyle hotels. We have two project roadmaps: Mondrian Bucharest, which is a concept and development already kicked, and we're planning to open by the last quarter of 2026.
Yes, Hoxton Bucharest, as mentioned, MOU signed already. Our approach, yeah, we give the best to the operator. We invest, we develop, and the operator, they manage. Mainly lifestyle hotels, they only sign management agreements for one reason: to maintain the quality and consistency for the guest experience, which fits exactly our strategy. We're not trying to cut corners, mainly in quality or in delivering lifestyle experience. Our vision for 2030 mainly is to deliver five lifestyle boutique hotels, which two of them are in pipeline already. We have three more. We're looking into many projects in Romania, mainly in Bucharest and some major cities like Brașov, Constanța, Mamaia, Sibiu. We are being very careful as first, the brand needs to make sense and the shareholders' profit as well needs to make sense.
With each hotel size, we're looking in between 100, 150 rooms, up to €15 million annual turnover, and achieving EBITDA above 35%, which makes a very profitable business model. We develop with minimal upfront capital. We leverage brand partnership and existing real estate to deliver stable long-term return. By 2030, our vision is mainly to stand a solid player in lifestyle hotel development in Romania as well as in Eastern Europe. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Riyad. Welcome to our couch. I would like first to ask you, talk about lifestyle hotels. What is the lifestyle hotel and how is it different than the traditional hotels that many of us know from Bucharest? Because again, Beatrice and Mihai were talking about being trendsetters. I believe One is also a trendsetter in talking about lifestyle hotels. Tell us a little bit, what is it?
Mainly, lifestyle has many definitions. If you ask five people, they will give you five different definitions. For me, what I understand from lifestyle, mainly, there are two main focuses in developing a lifestyle hotel. One is design. Yes, the design connects with the local city, with the local people. The second is the programming of the hotel, which is very important because it will define the future guest journey mapping. The third point as well is food and beverage. We don't want to have restaurants and lobbies empty, which we see mostly in many classic hotels. These three components, design, programming, and food and beverage components, I believe it's the DNA of a lifestyle hotel.
Lifestyle hospitality is a new business line for One United Properties announced last year. Why now is the moment? We see also other brands teasing coming to the market, just as you mentioned about our partners at Ennismore. Why now? Why 2025?
Why 2025? It's very clear. Our CEOs, they had the intention and they had the data to enter at the right time. As mentioned by the data, we see the investment in Romania is up to €3.6 billion up to 2030. We are the pioneer and the first one to invest in premium lifestyle luxury hotels. We see a big opportunity in it. We secure our strategic partner, which dominates the global lifestyle hotels brand in the world, and we're moving with this partnership to develop it in Romania.
For One United Properties, you have years of experience in the hospitality segment. What's the rationale behind choosing Mondrian and Hoxton brands, part of Ennismore, as the launchpad for the One Hospitality division? How open actually was Ennismore to bringing these two brands? How much is actually your effort to convince them to do so?
Look, I copy the model of One United Properties. The founders are the CEOs. Ennismore hotel brands, the founders are the CEOs. It's not a copy-paste corporate setup. We can see the founders of Mondrian, Ian Schrager or Sharan Pasricha as well. They're very successful businessmen and they are the CEOs of this brand. Accor Invest, and they bought this brand. We're following the brands that have really future goals and future expansion plans.
I'm very excited. I can't wait for Mondrian, especially. Hoxton, I saw also announced they're going to be also expanding in Krakow. Actually, it was news two days ago. I think Central Eastern Europe definitely is on the map. Now I would like to move to a question about the setup of the division because we've noticed questions from our investors and analysts. How is this division going to function from the operational and financial standpoint? You mentioned that by 2030, the target is to have each boutique hotel that will be operated by then should generate approximately €15 million in revenue. Who will be operating these hotels? What does the turnover actually entail? Is this the total sales made by the hotels annually? Is this part of the revenue that comes through you that is shared with the brands?
Can you give a little bit of color to our investors on how the setup works in this industry?
Mainly, what we're not here, One United Properties is not investing in creating hotel operation and start a learning journey based on our funds. That's why we choose the best brand who only signs an agreement to operate a brand. They don't do a franchise agreement. This is the first strategic decision for us. Secondly, when I say €15 million turnover, this includes food and beverage, commercial leases, as well as event space, wellness. Mainly, it's a mix of rooms, food and beverage, wellness revenue. Why €15 million? Our projection, which is on a low risk, because the data show like year to date, the market in Bucharest is 72% occupancy, above last year by 3%. The average daily rate is €150 for a four-star hotel, up to five stars, yes, above €5 by last year. The market is solid.
The local market is solid, yes, and the corporate market is solid. This is as well another strategic point for us.
There is one topic we discuss at every Capital Markets Day. It's related to the promotion of Romania, Bucharest abroad. There could always be more done, I believe, in terms of the country brand. These projections that you shared with us today, how sensitive are they to the tourism cycles in Bucharest? Do you think Romania and Bucharest will need a boost from the PR standpoint on the global stage to deliver on these numbers? Or are you confident that we, together with the Hoxton and Mondrian brand, can actually be the driver for tourism?
Look, bringing an international brand to Romania already boosts the tourism because these brands are worldwide well connected and they have their own distribution channel. The local market, as mentioned before, is quite solid and it's feeding the local business. Extra marketing, PR for the government, this will help a lot the tourism. Romania being part of the Schengen nowadays, we can see an increase as well in the travelers.
I think that was one of the biggest boosts, actually, for Romania in the last period. You mentioned a bit about expanding regionally, analyzing other cities like Constanța, Mamaia, Sibiu, Brașov. Can you tell us what are you looking in those cities? What should be the main drivers for one to consider hotel development there? As well as, are you looking outside of Romania? Is this option on the table?
Look, for Romania, as I said, there is a major tourism city, which is quite solid. For hospitality, being innovative in this part, yes, our strategy as well is to complete the residential. Where One is present in residential, hospitality might find the opportunity to invest and develop a hotel brand. As well, the business plan needs to make sense and needs to have good returns for the investors.
Thank you very much, Riyad. This concludes our session. I would like now to pass the microphone to our CFO, Cosmin Samoilă, who is going to give you a little bit of an update on our financial results for the first half of 2025.
Bună ziua! I'll start presenting some financial highlights we had in the last period. We have the rating process, the initiative with the bonds, the digitalization status, and also the financial results in the last year. Related to the rating process, we started this year discussions with all the big three rating agencies. To make a small note about them, they are institutions, each of them founded more than 100 years ago, and they cover globally more than 95% of the market. After we had the preliminary discussions and we got proposals, we decided to go further with two of the rating agencies. We appointed the first agency in March and the second agency in April. We started the rating process.
It was a very intense process with the agencies scrutinizing our history, looking at our business plan for the future three to five years, analysis, including site visits in Bucharest. There were teams coming from Madrid, from Frankfurt, from Warsaw. Also, multiple meetings with the management team, both physically and also conference calls. We finalized the processes in May with the first agency issuing the rating, and also on the 25th of June with the second agency issuing the rating. Both ratings are private ratings, so we cannot disclose the results, but we can say that the results were very good. What is coming naturally after rating processes, or it is somehow included in this process, it's a bond initiative.
If you remember, we had an approval from shareholders in April 2024 to have a program of issuing corporate bonds up to a value of €300 million, maturing up to 10 years, and this program is valid for three years. We basically started discussions with some of the international banks to assist us in this process. We discussed with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank. We took proposals from one of them. We assessed the expertise, the approach, and the pricing, and we decided to give a mandate to JP Morgan to support us in this initiative. At the moment, we are looking for targeting the European market, but also the U.S. market, and also potential listing on Luxembourg Stock Exchange or Euronext Dublin.
On the current status, is that we achieved the rating already, which is an important preliminary step in this process, and we are looking at the best moment to go out with actually kicking off the process. What we see is that after you kick off the process, it takes around three months to actually reach the issuance of the instruments. Below is also a table with actual bonds issued by peers in the region or other real estate companies, including their pricing. We see that the market is currently good and is going to be also on a normalized level in the next period. Related to digitalization, we had many implementations during the period. Most important, and the first one we implemented, is the Microsoft Dynamics Navision, the ERP of the company, which we implemented starting 2021.
Also, e-Invoice and SAF-T, these are mandatory implementations by the Romanian Fiscal Authority. What I can say is that we implemented both around two years before they were mandatory for all the companies in Romania. We have also implemented the Open Banking platform that is integrated with the ERP and reunites all the banks we are working with and all our current accounts. We are currently working with 10 banks, around 400 bank accounts. We also had an implementation of a tool that eliminated the last process run in the finance function that was still going by paper-based, meaning the petty cash accounts. Now they are fully electronic. The latest implementation that we finalized last year after the Capital Markets Day is a tool for budgeting and planning, Tagetica, which is developed by Wolters Kluwer. It is very widespread globally, including Toyota Motors Company is using it.
We finalized this implementation in November last year. This year, for the budgets of next year and the years after, we will use this tool in our process. We have in progress other tools, an integration in databases and archives of artificial intelligence that can scrutinize the documents, find information, respond to user requests, even do reports, complex reports. We are testing this alternative. I can tell you that we have in our databases and archives for the entire group more than 1 million documents for the finance function. We also work on a solution to have the IFRS 15 revenue recognition to be made live. If you know, we are using this approach of recognizing revenue based on the stage of completion of the construction.
How we are doing it right now is that at each quarter end, we are doing this entire calculation and we present it in the financial statements. We are also doing it on a monthly basis for internal purposes in a shorter process and much simpler. With this tool, we want to see live with each sale, with each supplier invoice that adds to the stage of completion of the construction to see immediately what is the revenue generated by that transaction. Also, we are looking to integrate the collection process to have some QR codes or some links on our invoices so for clients it's very easy to do the payment. Also, together with Mihai Păduroiu, we are looking for an application that will support the leasing and property function of the company. It's called Yardi.
It's used by the biggest company active in real estate property management and leasing. It is in plan to be implemented. Related to the financial performance, I took the starting point 31 of March last year, which was quite before our Capital Markets Day from last year, from April, which basically is a time frame of five quarters. We see total assets increasing 15% up to RON 5.9 billion as of the end of June this year. We see equity increasing even more than this with 21% up to RON 3.6 billion. This was generated by the profits of the company in this period, but also by the share capital increase we had last year. Also, net current assets increasing 33% up to RON 1.8 billion, showing a very strong liquidity position.
In terms of the performance in this period, we have a turnover reaching RON 461 million in the second quarter of this year and the cumulative value in this period since March last year of RON 1.8 billion. We have the operating profit growing from RON 93 million in the second quarter of last year up to RON 215 million in the second quarter of this year, and cumulative RON 623 million profit, operating profit. Also, the bottom line, the net profit increasing to RON 152 million, more than double compared to the RON 71 million that we achieved in the second quarter of last year. We see that this year, the profits, the net profit is higher compared to last year, and the cumulative value in this period of RON 464 million. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Cosmin. Let's start a little bit with a question. I think you're sick of that question because we talk about it every single time. Can you help our investors understand a little bit better the revenue recognition? You presented the key financial indicators, and one of the big questions that we get in discussions with our investors actually is, how is the net profit margin recognized from the residential segment? How does it impact the profit? This is one of the big questions actually that investors ask us. Maybe let's start with that.
Yeah. Basically, our financial statements policies in line with the IFRS are recognizing the revenue based on the entire duration of the construction. Based on the sales that we are signing with the clients, the profit and the revenue associated with these sales is recognized gradually on the entire duration of the construction in line with the stage of completion and the progress of the construction. This is a very good methodology to show the profits and the revenue on the entire duration and not only at one point in time when you actually deliver or when you actually do the sale of the.