As a financially strong company, the current challenging situation on the real estate market presents us with interesting opportunities. These include, for example, the acquisition, further development and completion of developments that have already been launched. For example, we purchased an insolvency estate in Freising near Munich last spring. The developments with around 10,000 m² of residential space, which had already been started, had got stuck in the shell construction phase. We were able to persuade the shell construction company Mauss Bau, which had been carrying out the work until then, to continue with the developments. They have now not only taken over and continued the shell construction work, but are also providing us with all turnkey services. Our local construction partner is also taking over the entire planning services as general contractor and is now completing the entire project for us.

Parallel to the purchasing process, we optimized the floor plans and layouts of the apartments with our creative design team in order to be able to plan the sale of the condominiums in the best possible way from the customer and buyer's perspective. Among other things, we adjusted the planned room sizes or specific usable areas in the apartments. For example, we have converted an originally planned storage room into a guest bathroom. We are convinced that our selective interventions in the planning stage after the acquisition of the project reflect maximum improvement with regard to the wishes of buyers in the region.

In Düsseldorf, we are planning the conversion of a disused office property into an attractive and sustainable residential building. The structure of the three-part building from the 1970s is ideally suited for conversion to contemporary residential use. The development plan for the building already designates it as residential, so there is no need to draw up a new development plan. Of course, we hope to gain a time advantage under construction because the shell of the building is already largely in place. But existing buildings also have their restrictions and requirements. In this development, we have a large building with damage. The subject of pollutant remediation. The entire supporting structure also needs to be upgraded. We started dismantling work eight weeks ago. We are removing the screed and non-load-bearing walls. We have outsourced the general planning. We want to award the construction contract in the fall and submit the building application at the end of the year. Construction is then expected to start in the third quarter of next year.

In Copenhagen, we have purchased an existing building in the independent municipality of Frederiksberg. A former office building that we are converting into a hotel. We are realizing the first hotel for Ruby in Denmark there. The lease contract has been signed. We are now in the process of finding a construction partner. At the same time, we are starting the mock-up for the rooms and the façade. After that, the upgrading work for the existing building will begin. We expect to receive the building permit towards the summer of this year. Construction is expected to start in October this year. Working with the authorities is much easier in Denmark than in Germany. Once the building application has been submitted, we expect authorization within four to six weeks. In Germany, we are talking about six months for logistics - if things go quickly - and at least twelve months or more for office or residential projects. It's much easier in Denmark and, in particular, more constructive when working together with the authorities.

Here, we acquired the Thalia developments in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, in competition. Thalia has chosen the region as the central base for its new innovative omni-channel hub. The developments are being built on a former brownfield site in the new gate.ruhr industrial estate and comprise around 56,000 m² of usable space. Construction started at the beginning of the year. We expect completions at the end of this year, as Thalia wants to be in operation for the Christmas shopping season. The work on site is going extremely well. We are working with Goldbeck, one of our long-standing and proven construction partners. The architecture in logistics is more functional. We set the priorities at the beginning. Our many years of experience in the logistics sector have enabled us to define a construction standard for our developments. In addition to the implementation of a sustainability code, topics such as What headroom do we need? How many loading gates are necessary? What is the technical fit-out? For built-to-suit developments, we always look at how we can reconcile the tenant's wishes from the lease contract with our ideal standard in order to meet their interests. The potential or demand for alternative uses of the product is always one of the key factors influencing our exit strategy.