The finalisation of the purchase of a controlling stake in Archicom, the sale of 463 apartments and handing over 154 apartments to clients, the start of leasing of two completed Resi4Rent projects in Warsaw, maintaining average leasing in all completed Resi4Rent buildings at the level exceeding 95%, as well as the sale of the Villa Offices building in Warsaw Brewery – this is a summary of Echo Investment's operating activities in the first quarter of 2021. During this time, the Group generated €5.46 million (PLN 24.5 million) of net profit.
Echo Investment enjoys a stable financial standing and maintains a high cash position: at the end of the first quarter it was over PLN 668 million. A nearly 15% increase in the value of assets compared to the first quarter of 2020 also proves stable development. Currently, their value amounts to PLN 5.8 billion.
From the beginning of the year to the end of March 2021, Echo Investment sold 463 apartments, improving the result achieved in the same period last year by 16%. The company is constantly expanding its offer and only in 2021 as the Echo-Archicom group it will start construction of 7,000 apartments for sale and rent.
“Taking into account the new reality in which we operate, social trends, and changing client preferences, we focus on growing the residential sector. We are ready to implement this plan. In recent years, we have focused on the purchase of large plots of land, where complex and perfectly designed attractive parts of the city with a dominant residential function can be built. Additionally, in April this year, we finalised the purchase of a 66% stake in the Wrocław-based property developer Archicom, as a result of which the Echo-Archicom group has become the biggest residential developer in Poland,” says Nicklas Lindberg, CEO of Echo Investment.
The developer is consistently expanding Resi4Rent – the largest company with apartments for rent in Poland. At the end of the first quarter of 2021, Resi4Rent owned 40% of the finished units managed by institutional investors. By the end of the year, it will have 2,300 apartments in operation and more than 3,000 units under construction.
Currently, Echo Investment has office buildings under construction with a total leasable area of approx. 100,000 sqm and another 206,000 sqm are in the planning stage. In the first quarter, it started the construction of an office complex Brain Park in Kraków. In March 2021, the company sold the Villa Offices building of the Warsaw Brewery complex.
“We are conducting advanced talks about the sale of other buildings, which should soon result in signed sale contracts. With an excellent location, good architecture and individual approach to clients, our office buildings are a stable, long-term investment for funds and financial institutions. The first quarter also brought an increased interest from tenants which resulted in contracts signed for 40,000 sqm. We are also in the ongoing process of many lease negotiations and this proves that people are coming back to the offices,” comments Maciej Drozd, CFO of Echo Investment.
In the retail segment, in the first quarter of 2021, among other things, Echo can highlight two significant lease agreements. The company leased 8,500 sqm of retail space to Kaufland chain in the Pasaż Opieńskiego shopping centre in Poznań, while in Łódź Fuzja it has signed an agreement with Netto. Whereas in Warsaw Brewery, after the difficult time of lockdown, the first restaurants, cafes and service points have been attracting crowds of Warsaw residents every day.
