Instone Real Estate Group SE (ETR:INS)
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Earnings Call: Q3 2023

Nov 9, 2023

Burkhard Sawazki
Head of Communications and Business Development, Instone Real Estate Group

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our Q3 2023 earnings call. Our CEO, Kruno Crepulja, and our new CFO, David Dreyfus, will walk you through our presentation and give you an update on our current business performance and our outlook. As usual, this will be followed by a Q&A session. With this, I would like to hand over directly to Kruno.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Hello, everyone. I'm glad you could join us for our Q3 earnings call. In an unchanged, tough environment, we continue to deliver very solid results on the basis of a strong balance sheet. We maintain a very decent profitability and generate positive operating cash flows. This also shows that our continued focus on costs and cash preservation is bearing fruit. The most critical point in the current environment remains, of course, the demand situation, which overall remains at a still subdued level. Nevertheless, it is also fair to point out that we have been observing a continued moderate recovery in our private customer business over the last month from a low level. Especially the development since the beginning of Q4 is quite encouraging. We had new sales starts in the last weeks, and the first indications are quite positive.

We also expect a positive impact from the introduction of an increased depreciation on new builds. This new law, which is supposed to be passed by the German parliament by mid-December, will have a positive impact on return expectations for private buy-to-let investors, in particular. On the other hand, the institutional market is still largely halted, and we do not expect a start of the recovery process before the middle of 2024. On the supply side, we are observing a continuation of the positive trend over the last quarters, and we are currently witnessing a stabilization of construction costs. Against the backdrop of decreasing order books, construction companies have become more willing to give up part of their margins. Accordingly, costs are well within our budgets.

Nevertheless, we believe that structurally, upward pressure on construction costs will not come to an end in the near future due to rising labor costs. As already flagged in last quarters, in the current market environment, we have increased our focus on costs and cash preservation. Our efforts are making progress. Our recurring platform costs for the first 9 months are already slightly lower than they were a year ago, and more savings should be achieved by the end of this year. Specifically, we view ourselves on track to reach our targeted run rate for platform costs of EUR 70 million by the end of this year. With a strong result in the third quarter, our business generates positive operating cash flows in the first 9 months. Hence, our solid balance sheet and leverage ratios have further improved in last quarters.

Let's now take a brief look at our financial KPIs for the first nine months of 2023. Our adjusted revenues amounted to EUR 433.3 million, only last year's level and in line with our budget. Our gross margin stayed at high level of 25.5%. This once again clearly reflects a leading profitability compared to our German peers. With support from lower platform costs and rising contributions from our Berlin joint venture, and despite higher interest costs, our earnings after tax have increased to EUR 37.1 million. Overall, our Q3 results show that we are very well on track to reach our financial targets for the full year 2023.

Accordingly, we reiterate our 2023 full year guidance with adjusted revenues of EUR 600 million-EUR 700 million and adjusted gross margin of around 25% and adjusted earnings after tax of EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million. Moving on to slide 5 in our presentation. As usual, we provide full transparency regarding sales speed in our retail customer business. This graph illustrates that we see a continued moderate improvement of our sales ratio from admittedly depressed levels in the first month of this year. As already pointed out, especially in the last few weeks, we observed quite encouraging momentum with support from new sales starts. Due to the weak demand situation, we decided to postpone new sales starts in the first nine months, but we are happy with the initial results from our sales starts in October.

For example, with one project, we already have 54 reservations after the first couple of weeks after sales start. Except for the new sales start, demand is mainly driven by products which are in advanced stages of the construction phase, as buyers still prefer to minimize time to completion, mainly in order to minimize interest costs. The customer structure is still determined by more equity-oriented, mostly buy-to-let investors. We believe that there will be additional of an increased depreciation on newly built properties. According to the draft law, there will be 6% aggressive depreciation on new builds versus the current status of 3%. The law is supposed to be passed by the German... As already mentioned, the situation in the institutional market has not really changed so far. Most of our institutional investors continue to stay in a wait-and-see mode.

However, talking to our clients, we believe that a moderate recovery in 2024 is possible... This is supported by the market indicators, which we will cover on the next page. For the time being, the visibility on the timeline remains low, and we do not expect the start of a recovery process of the transaction market before mid-2024. New build properties are clearly on top of the buyers list due to the superior energy standards of our product, the compliance with EU Taxonomy, and the favorable rental outlook. On the following slides 6 and 7, we provide an overview of relevant market indicators. A key question, especially in the current environment with a high level of uncertainty, is the price development. The slump in transaction volumes reduces transparency regarding appropriate price levels and reflects market uncertainty.

The value of published market data has certainly suffered due to the aforementioned reasons. However, the big picture has become clearer. It is widely recognized that we are seeing only a moderate decline in headline prices for new build properties in the metropolitan areas. Newly built properties are clearly outperforming the broader market, while properties with a CapEx backlog for energetic refurbishment are seeing the largest discounts. The fact that there are no sharp price corrections for new builds has already led certain buyers, mainly on the retail side, to return to the market. Nevertheless, I think it is also fair to say that asking prices, as shown on the left-hand side, might differ slightly from the actual transaction prices, which often include incentives. The right-hand side of this slide shows construction price inflation over time. The most recent data from August show further signs of stabilization.

This is in line with our on-the-ground experience, where new construction contracts are mostly in line and in some cases, even below budget. In addition, we clearly benefit from improved negotiation power vis-a-vis our suppliers, as construction companies' order books are increasingly weakening, and thus construction companies are more willing to give up part of their margins. Nevertheless, going forward, we still do not dare to anticipate decreasing construction costs, as we expect expanding labor costs might continue to drive overall construction cost expansion, but most likely at more moderate levels. Over to page seven. The persistently strong momentum in rents across residential assets and the particular strength regarding rents of new builds are perhaps the most important positive development for us in the market.

There are definitely regional differences, but generally, we have seen a rent growth acceleration over the last quarters in the big metropolitan areas to a level we haven't seen for many years. Energy-efficient, newly built properties are once again a key beneficiary of this development. The scarcity for residential space is obviously rising further. This is reinforced by, first, a massive decline in new construction. Second, a substantial number of potential buyers that are being forced into the rental market in the new rate environment. And third, the well-known migration and urbanization trends. Considering the time lag in connection with supply for new build properties, we can expect the demand surplus for rental properties to continue to put upward pressure on rent prices. As you know, new builds benefit from much more favorable rent regulation in comparison to the existing housing stock.

In good locations, landlords of newly built properties are able to negotiate inflation-linked rental contracts. This clearly contributes to rent increases in the current environment, both from existing and new leases. The attractiveness of the sub-asset class is well understood by many institutional investors. However, the short-term uncertainty regarding the new equilibrium price is still high. There's still a wide bid-ask spread in the investment market, and the current turmoil in the German developer market does not help in this respect. Therefore, we believe that will still take some time before we will see a sustained market recovery. Price corrections for new builds, as discussed, are quite moderate. We view our base case scenario for the expected peak to trough price adjustments as basically intact. We consider a mid to higher single-digit price correction as realistic.

You are familiar with our two-dimensional graph, which contrasts the opposing effects of rent development and yield expansion. We all have to acknowledge that it will take somewhat longer than initially thought, until we will see a major recovery of the institutional investor market. Talking to our customers, the start of a recovery by mid-2024 could be a realistic scenario. This implies that there will be additional extended period for rental growth over and above the outlined two-year forward growth outlined on the X-axis on the graph. By, let's say, at least an additional 5%, which will feed into the valuation models. Accordingly, rental yields for our clients could reach a level of 4%. This is clearly attractive for this asset class, also in the historical context... Moving on to slide 8.

Instone can navigate through the storm with a comparatively low risk profile, strong balance sheet and industry-leading margins, and the high level of pre-sales with highly predictable cash flows are the key elements of this. On this chart, we illustrate that projects worth EUR 3.1 billion are currently under construction, of which some EUR 2.8 billion, or 90%, have already been sold. This forms a stable source of future revenues of more than EUR 700 million, which have not yet been. With this, I would like to hand over to our new CFO, David, for the financial section of the presentation. David, I'm happy that you are on board.

David Dreyfus
CFO, Instone Real Estate Group

Thank you, Kruno. Good morning, everyone, from my side. Let me quickly introduce myself. I am Swiss and have worked for nearly 30 years in investment banking. In this context, I helped Kruno and his team in going public back in 2018, and I've been following the company quite closely since. I started as CFO on September 1, although I must say, it feels much longer. A lot has changed since the IPO. Instone has more than doubled its project pipeline, and I'm really impressed by the quality of the team and the processes that have been implemented to steer and control the business. Instone has strong capabilities to precisely plan and monitor its projects and its respective cash flows, which is a unique and highly relevant differentiator in the current market environment.

Let me now walk you through our Q3 financials in a bit more detail, starting with page 10. I think it is fair to say that we achieved, once again, very solid results against the current market backdrop. Our revenues are nearly on prior years level. Again, construction progress of the pre-sold units have been the major contributor to nine months revenues. We continue to achieve attractive margins underpinned by the quality of our projects, as well as our ability to manage construction costs. With a gross margin of around 25%, we certainly claim an industry-leading profitability. We have already discussed our continued focus on cost and cash preservation in the current market environment. We have successfully managed to reduce our personal expenses and our overall platform costs. This has been achieved based on lower staff and G&A costs.

As a result, we continue to expect platform costs for the full year 2023 of around slightly below EUR 80 million, as mentioned by Kruno, while we also feel on track to reach a run rate of annualized platform costs of EUR 70 million by the end of this year. Looking at our 9-month figures, the EUR 80 million target for 2023 may not look overly ambitious, but please bear in mind that the reported platform costs are somewhat distorted by higher other operating income. This income is partially attributable to project-related items, such as release of guarantee provisions. We are considering reclassifying such items to the gross margin level in Q4, but this has not yet been decided yet.

An important pillar to our sound bottom line result was the earnings contribution from our joint venture project in Friedenauer Höhe in Berlin, which is progressing positively in line with our expectations. Our net interest expenses increased only slightly despite higher project debt and rising interest costs. The increase in costs is partially offset by rising interest income in our cash position. As a reminder, at the beginning of last year, the rates on our cash balance were still in negative territory. At the bottom line, our EPS climbed by some 15%, which is also supported by the low weighted number of shares outstanding. Let's move on to page 11. On slide 11, you find a brief overview of how we are going to achieve our sales and revenue targets in the current financial year.

After having reached sales contracts of around EUR 91 million in the first nine months, our full year target of at least EUR 150 million implies a sales acceleration in the final quarter. Against the backdrop of the recent positive retail sales trends, as mentioned by Kruno, especially since beginning of October, we expect a rise in retail sales in Q4. We also see good chances for a signing of a smaller institutional deal in Q4, which, we have in the pipeline and should be signed very soon. In addition, we will benefit from index-based sales price adjustments with some of our institutional clients, which will also be captured as new sales according to our definition. Accordingly, we also reiterate our full year sales target of more than EUR 150 million.

The revenue bridge on the right-hand side shows that our full year forecast is primarily based on revenues generated from expected construction progress of pre-sold properties. Turning to the next page: leverage. As you can see, our Q3 credit metrics have further improved since the last quarter. The strong cash generation in the third quarter is a key driver for this. We maintain a rock-solid balance sheet, which is clearly a key competitive strength of Instone in the current environment. Back on the, on the back of a lower net debt position in the third quarter, our LTC ratio stands at moderate levels of only 21%. Net debt to EBITDA has also dropped to 2.8x in Q3.

As you can see from the footnote and in line with the previous quarter, we have excluded cash, and correspondingly financial debt of Westville in this calculation, as this is due to subsidized loans attributable to our customers. Moreover, I would like to mention that our book value per share, valued at costs, amounts to some 13.5 EUR per share, which is obviously significantly above the current share price. Chart 13. Cash flow. As already discussed and shown on slide 13, as already discussed and shown on this slide, we achieved a strong Q3 operating cash flow based on secured predefined payment schedules of sold projects. Our nine-month cash flow amounts to 18.7 million EUR.

We expect the difficult market environment to persist in the coming months, and we believe that the negative news from German developers have unfortunately not yet come to an end. Therefore, we see the risk that distressed situations of highly levered players in our sector will have a continued adverse impact on financing conditions in the sector. We thus remain highly focused on preserving our healthy cash position. This also allows us to position to, to be positioned to take advantage of potential acquisition opportunities, which we expect will be increasingly arising in the market. However, we remain cautious when evaluating opportunities, and our core focus will remain on working on our existing EUR 7 billion pipeline. The cash outflow for land in the first three quarters relates to prior year commitments. Our liquidity position remains strong.

With our current cash position and undrawn revolving credit facilities, we have circa EUR 350 million of liquidity available. In addition, we have contractually secured undrawn project financing lines of more than EUR 170 million. It is important to note that we remain one of the only of a few developers with continued access to both secured project debt as well as unsecured corporate financing. In October, we just completed the successful raise of a EUR 20 million promissory note at reasonably attractive terms, which we view as a great success in the current market. The full access to financing will clearly be another competitive advantage for Instone. Moving on to chart 4, slide 14. Slide 14 provides an overview of our solid financing structure.

Just very briefly, we have no short-term maturities and generally no major maturities before the second half of 2025. The raised capital notes is partially used to repay a larger part of the outstanding EUR 15.5 million promissory notes due in 2024. Moving on to the final page, 15. Against the backdrop of our very solid Q3 results, we view ourselves very well on track to reach our full 2023 financial targets. With this, I would like to conclude the presentation and move on to Q&A, to the Q&A part. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star, followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, please press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star, followed by one at this time. We kindly ask that each investor asks one question at a time. One moment for the first question, please. Our first question comes from Thomas Rothäusler with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Hi, everybody. A couple of questions. The first one is on the 6% depreciation. I mean, could this become a meaningful driver for more demand? Or do you have any experience from former programs which might have been similar to this one? Just to get a rough idea about the relevance, you know?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

... Hi, Thomas, here's Kruno speaking. So we can compare it, you know, with the listed building program, which is still the driver for sales activities, for example, in our project in Leipzig, where we are still selling nearly on the same level as before the crisis. So it is, for buy-to-let investors, clearly a very attractive program, and we will also try to connect it with the program of the high energy efficiency buildings. And in combination, this leads to highly attractive returns for buy-to-let investors.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay. On the market overall, I mean, you referred to tough, tough market with some of the competitors having quite some challenge, especially the delivered one. Maybe you can provide a rough update. I mean, where are land prices currently? Yeah, that would be helpful.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Sure. So I think that, you know, we are in a, if you like, in a unique position with our balance sheet in comparison to the biggest part of the market, where a lot of developers are currently trying to prolong their financing structures, to change the financing structures. There's a lot of, you know, turmoil in the market, ongoing, and therefore, we see that the land offers are increasing. The discounts here are not still at the level we are expecting them to come out. So we, you know, we expect land prices in comparison to 2022 for permitted land to go down by 30%+.

If you calculate, you know, the 4% gross yield, as mentioned in one of our slides, this, of course, leads to an impact on land prices, but the market is not there yet. I think it will take another 3-6-month time period. It is also linked to the question, when do the senior debt lenders stop to prolong the financing? And then, of course, the pressure will increase, and then we will see also the first fire sales from our perspective. And we are preparing ourselves for this time period to be there when the really good chances are coming up.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. And then I'm hearing there's good demand for subsidized product. Just wondering, could you explain what is the key driver and can you offer the right product for that?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Sure. So, the driver is when you look at, you know, the... It's-- We are in Germany, so every state and every region has different, different parameters. But roughly, if you, if you take, for example, Bavaria, the attractiveness is coming from two or three aspects. One is you have to only to invest 15% of the total investment is equity. The remaining part is financed by, by, by state loans. You get for the equity a return, and, and this, of course, is what I'm saying is there's, there are differences from region to region, from state to state, but the attractive schemes are like, you get more than 5% yield on your equity.

You have to invest only 15% of the total amount, and additionally, after the 25 years, for example, where you have to rent the flats for an obliged price, you are not, you don't have to pay the whole loan back. This, in combination, is a very attractive program for investors. In addition, you do a lot for ESG, from social impact perspective. Your second question, do we have the product? We have the perfect product. It's our new business, where you know, we are providing standardized, high-quality social housing product with our new. And here we clearly see that there is traction.

We also look at our project portfolio and we are, you know, changing, let's say, the planning processes into the direction of social housing, more social housing or smaller units, to address those units to buy-to-let investors with the depreciation program. So this is what we are currently doing within our portfolio, to adjust our portfolio to the market environment.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm. And then there are new measures, actually, I think they have been announced just a couple of days ago, to simplify new construction. Can you provide any color on this? And I guess it impacts also like the segment we just discussed, like subsidized product, as it seems like it makes it much cheaper. Is it right?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Yeah, I think you need the competencies to get it cheaper. So the government, from my perspective, the biggest steps are currently to, let's say to address that, your standardized product could be permitted digitally and permitted in the same way in all the states. This clearly helps us because we have our a new product, and we are completely nationwide working with this. Regarding the technical stuff like, you know, noise or fire and all the things which have driven the costs upwards in last years. Also, you know, the energy efficiency. I don't think that we will see here a lot of, you know, a lot of potential to decrease the costs.

From my perspective, the companies as we are, they will clearly benefit from the possibility to do more standardized housing, and this will be the biggest driver. In addition, what also helps is that the government is discussing with the cities and the states the parking places. So to reduce parking places, the obligation for parking places, which also has a big impact on costs.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay, the last one. Could you provide the terms of this EUR 20 million financing you fixed in October?

David Dreyfus
CFO, Instone Real Estate Group

Yes, hi, Thomas. We can give you a bit of color. So we in total have interest of circa 6.5%.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Mm.

David Dreyfus
CFO, Instone Real Estate Group

It's a three-year loan.

Thomas Rothaeusler
Real Estate Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay. Thank you.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Welcome.

Operator

Our next question comes from Manuel Martin with ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.

Manuel Martin
Senior Equity Research Analyst, ODDO BHF

Thank you, Jennifer. One question from my side, please. Could you give us some flavor on the market when it comes to the availability of craftsmen and whether construction companies are striking too much, maybe going bust? And how could this affect Instone?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

So I think the construction companies, clearly, are, let's say, those who are focused on residential building activities, they are clearly, you know, suffering from the whole situation by orders being declined, et cetera. And from my perspective, they are getting more and more under pressure. Looking at our projects, I don't see here a risk for our projects really, because you know, we have companies working for us for many years, strong companies, and we have these things also under control because we do single awarding mostly, and it's also easy for us to replace a company if there is an insolvency.

I think this is a very limited risk. Prospectively, I think, and this will also happen, so, looking at the pressure, the social pressure on the government of Germany, looking at, you know, the macro, there's a significant demand, so for flats in Germany, significantly further increasing through lower construction activities. On the other hand, if the blue-collar workers are starting to demonstrate, going into demonstrations by, you know, work, I think this will further increase the pressure on the government to do, to add something to the program they introduced in the last six months.

So from my perspective, this will happen in 2024, because, as mentioned, the institutional market, we expect to start to come back mid-2024, but for the construction companies, it means they have to go into short work, et cetera. And this will also lead to actions in the direction of the government. And when you look at the coming votes, I think the government will get under pressure here, clearly. And perspectively, more in the, let's say, dimension of 5-10 years, clearly, the lack of workers is a very big issue for the industry. So, and this will also lead perspectively to more prefabrication, more industrialized processes.

This is more a midterm development, but it will happen because of the scarcity of construction workers in Europe.

Manuel Martin
Senior Equity Research Analyst, ODDO BHF

Hmm, okay. Okay, thank you very much.

Operator

... Our next question comes from Philipp Kaiser with Warburg Research GmbH. Please go ahead.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Yeah. Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats to the solid performance of Q3. I would start with one on your guidance. So revenue-wise, you kind of would need EUR 176 million to reach the lower end. It would be your strongest quarter this year. On the other hand, you only need to reach or to earn EUR 2.9 million of adjusted net income, or to reach the lower end, and only EUR 7.9 million to reach the midpoint. Both numbers would be the lowest earnings this year. Is it just kind of conservative, or can we expect any headwinds in Q4? Or is it linked to the distorted platform costs, and we can assume higher platform costs in the last quarter? Any information would be quite helpful on that.

David Dreyfus
CFO, Instone Real Estate Group

Yes, I think you have summarized, Philip, the situation correctly. We feel very comfortable that we get above EUR 600 million of revenues that we have guided at the lower end, and we feel very comfortable with regard to our net income line. There are some platform costs increases in the last quarter, but I think your summary is appropriate.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay, perfect. Thanks for that. Very helpful. My next question is, in the H1 conference call, you mentioned that you already secured roughly above EUR 400 million in revenues for next year. Could you give us an update? Is it still the case or increased the number after the first nine months already?

David Dreyfus
CFO, Instone Real Estate Group

This is roughly in line.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay, perfect. And then, looking two years ahead already, I mean, it's quite complicated, but, is there or kind of how high is the risk that the sales pipeline will dry out? I mean, you benefited last year, and this year and, or, and also next year from the high ratio of already pre-sold apartments. But, I think sooner or later you need to start selling properties to, yeah, prevent a drop in sales starting with 2025. So any color on that?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Yeah, I think, when you look at, you know, the sales channels, we are addressing our product, let's say starting with the owner-occupier business, where we see a recovery in the last few months, for the ongoing projects. What helps us as a company here, and this is not, let's say, for the whole market, is that the people are looking at, you know, whom I trust that the project will be finished in time, and this is one very positive argument for us. The same for institutional buyers. If I, you know, think of a company where I really trust that they will finish it. So I think here we are. We have clearly a really big advantage to the market.

The second group, buy-to-let investors, the depreciation program is highly attractive.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

It's really looking at the returns. It's quite more attractive than the time period where the rent, the interest rates were very low because of, you know, you get 4% gross yield, plus 6% depreciation, plus the high energy efficiency where you get up to EUR 150,000 for interest rate of 0%. And then you, or let's say -4%.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

In comparison to the current interest level. So, I would say this should attract additional demand. And then the institutional buyers, I think for them, I think the current turmoil has to clear up. So the question: Where will the interest rates come out? I think this is more and more clear that we maybe have reached the peak, but it will-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

be clearer next 6-9 months.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

And further rent price inflation will lead to, will lead to meeting, let's say, the current, the current demand from investors, plus what are the, what are the sales prices the developers can afford? So this will also, from my perspective, here we will see clearly progress. In addition, I think for, for us as a company, of course, we are prepared for, you know, we are preparing for, of course, alternative strategies. So-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

too, to, we see a strong demand from international investors. We are the perfect partner. We could be the perfect partner to benefit from the current market environment. We see a strong demand from state-owned companies. Let's say they are asking for someone who is building social housing. So we have, let's say, business opportunities here to cover our costs if necessary. But I'm pretty sure that the market will start to see transactions in after mid-2024 for institutional buyers, not on the same level as in the past, but this will-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Still, we'll catch up step by step.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay, perfect. You already started carefully to marketing the first product already. Is there any point in time next year where you really need to increase the marketing ratio to secure revenues for 2025?

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Yeah, I think, you know, looking at 2025, clearly, so it's of course much too early to give a guidance for 2025.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Sure, yeah.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

But clearly, we need transactions and sales activities in 2024, of course. But again, I think due to the fact that we have also revenues already secured by the N 25 from sales activities this year-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

There is still a hole to be closed, but we are not starting at zero.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay, perfect. Thanks. Very helpful. My last question is regarding development cost per square meter. Are there any updates on that? Currently, it also kind of might be split between your core product and the new product segment.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

I think when you look at, I can give you the difference between the costs we are seeing in the core business and new.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

It's roughly 20%.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Looking at the costs overall, I think, you know, we are, of course, able to construct cheaper than the biggest part of the market. This is one of the explanations of our very high gross margin.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

So when you compare our gross margin with the peers, Buwog or Vonovia, we are nearly 10% higher, and 10%, it's mostly translated-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

... by cheaper construction or let's say, overall costs.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay, perfect. But there's no concrete number, like-

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Let's say differently.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Five hundred.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Philip, let's say it differently. Let's say it differently. I know that there are other companies saying that they come out this cost with EUR 5,000 plus.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

I know that.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

To give you one example-

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Okay

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

... we have sold, we have sold one project in Duisburg for a sales price, including land costs, of roughly EUR 3,700 per square meter.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

And this includes land.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

If you assume the land price to be at EUR 500, I think then you have a number which is achievable.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Very, very helpful for all this information. That's off.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Thank you, Philip.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your touchtone telephone. Looks like we have no further questions at this time, so I hand back to Burkhard Sawazki for our closing comments. Please, go ahead.

Burkhard Sawazki
Head of Communications and Business Development, Instone Real Estate Group

Thank you for your participation. If you need further information, please do not hesitate to call the Instone IR team or send us an email. Thank you, and bye.

Kruno Crepulja
CEO, Instone Real Estate Group

Thank you.

Philipp Kaiser
Equity Research Analyst, Warburg Research GmbH

Thank you.

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