alstria office REIT-AG Blog

Green Lanterns

2012-05-23T07:26:00-07:00

IPD has started an interesting new index in the French market, called the IPD Green Real estate index. It basically analyses the performance of Green buildings and compares it with both recent non-green buildings as well as with the general IPD index (http://aox.ag/KdpWzJ) As far as I know, this is the first time such an indicator is put together. This is more than welcome initiative as it

It's a wonderful life

2012-04-26T07:43:00-07:00

An interesting development in the life of the open-ended fund industry has hit the news today. In a press release published today (http://aox.ag/IGAUNd), SEB ImmoInvest is trying to achieve what none of its peers dared to try before. Move from a bank run situation back to a stabilized situation. They are doing so by pointing on to shareholders the actual consequence of the run. The

Forward looking statement

2012-04-20T03:53:00-07:00

An interesting white paper published recently by Collier International went un-noticed, while I believe it deserve some attention and reading by anyone who is interested in the European office market. The white paper is the third issue of a series called “Generation Y: Space planning and the future of workplace design”. Below this (un)inspiring title lies an interesting tentative calculation

Point of view

2012-04-17T01:05:00-07:00

Following the publication of our latest annual reports we had a number of discussions with some analysts and investors (as we did last year for that matter) with respect to the write-off in value that we have published on our short leased assets. We usually argue that from our perspective we would offer a lower price for a vacant building than we would for the same asset with a one year lease

To go please !

2012-04-10T00:34:00-07:00

I have been trying to figure out how to improve the utility management process of the company for quite a while now. This topic is important for us for a number of reasons, and I am deeply convinced that we need to find the right way to address this while time is still on our side. Not only managing utilities is the main way to improve sustainability credential of an asset, but utilities

More than a thousand words

2012-02-16T02:24:00-08:00

This is probably not really worth a press release, but i though I could take a few minutes to write about it on our blog. Our AltePost development project has been selected to run for the MIPIM award in two categories this year. As the best Refurbished Building, and the Best German Project. It is a very nice recognition for what was a five year hard work for our team as well as our

I love it when a plan comes together!

2011-09-30T08:29:00-07:00

European leaders might or might not be putting together CDO² in order to save (or kill for that matter) the Eurozone. The ECB might or might not become a large hedge fund. European banks might be under-capitalized (from what we can see it is fair to say that at least their real estate loan book is nowhere close where it would need to be). The US are facing huge budgets constrains while US

No excuses

2011-08-27T01:42:00-07:00

You do not have enough time to read alstria's blog? You can access it now from your iphone via alstria's app. It available following this link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alstria-reit-ag/id451830672 or look for alstria in the appstore directly on your iphone... A preview of what the app does is available at the following link: http://alstria.webuda.com/ So from now on, there is no excuses.

What is wrong with rights?

2011-07-22T10:16:00-07:00

ISS is one of the leading corporate governance solutions to the global financial community. Their home page claims that they want to “enable the financial community to manage the governance risk for the benefit of shareholders”. As part its governance approach ISS is currently conducting a review of its voting policies and have launched a public consultation available on their website (http://

The inconvenient truth

2011-05-30T08:33:00-07:00

The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (Verband deutscher Pfandbriefbanken, or vdp) have started a new (welcomed) initiative publishing a German office building rent index. The first result of this index are available on the vdp website (you will find the press release http://aox.ag/mfaQxW , and the index itself http://aox.ag/kkFoxR - theses links are for the English version but the same

Nash Equilibrium

2011-05-06T08:34:00-07:00

A number of open ended funds are offering their unit holders a very nice opportunity to make good usage of game theory and figure out what to do next. Some funds (see related article in the Immobilien Zeitung -in German- http://aox.ag/lvAZK1 ), are asking their current unit holders, what would be their behavior if the funds were to reopen for redemption. The underlying idea, is that the more

Control Freaks

2011-04-18T05:55:00-07:00

Social media is clearly not yet an accepted way of communicating in a publicaly listed environment. alstria’s short experience in the matter, is that very little (real estate ?) stakeholders actually look at twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and other social media. Still you never know how thinks might develop in the future. So we might want to keep the social media experiment up for a while. More

Real Life

2011-04-04T02:05:00-07:00

Some pictures of the Mundsburg Construction site.

The good, the bad and the ugly

2011-04-01T08:08:00-07:00

In a recent paper, signed by Joseph Harvey, President and CIO of Cohen and Steers (disclaimer, Cohen and Steers is as far as I know one of our shareholder), the investment manager argues about the merits of allowing European REIT to execute capital increase excluding subscription rights. (The document can be read at the following address http://bit.ly/flBlrP) Having executed a recent capital

Japanese’s whispers

2010-12-08T19:34:00-08:00

I have put on a paper some thoughts while I was in roadshow in Asia, following meeting with investors and investment analysts. As a disclaimer, I am writing this in the middle of a jetlagged night, and I clearly do not pretend to know what I am talking about here. 1- In China, it seems that it is more reasonable to invest into less known secondary cities, than in the majors. Rational being that

Same Player Shoot Again.

2010-12-04T13:40:00-08:00

A recent article in PropertyEU (http://bit.ly/dXPKja) and other real estate newsletters report on the last IPD/IPF conference where a number of commentator have indicated that the solvency II directive will increase insurance companies willingness to lend to real estate. This might as well be true, but between you and me Solvency II will have potentially more far reaching implication for the real

Real Life

2010-11-24T05:38:00-08:00

Picture from the construction site of the New Ohnsorg Theater.

Hold your fire

2010-11-12T07:55:00-08:00

We had the question on alstria’s quaterly call this week. Listening to other German real estate companies call, and reading a number of analyst note, it seems that there is a growing number of (non German) market participant who expect “distressed sales” coming from the German open ended funds (mainly of the ones which said they will liquidate). Is German open ended funds liquidation a great

Little Dorrit

2010-10-27T23:54:00-07:00

Anyone interested in real estate investment is aware of the „difficult“ times the German open ended fund industry is going through. As you can expect the German press is full of article trying to figure out what happened, what a solution would be (may I naively suggest listing?) and whether or not it is safe to invest in them again. In the last few days there were a number of article which

Honi soit qui mal y pense

2010-08-18T13:52:00-07:00

In the foreword to a green supplement in the magazine House and Garden (in 2008), the Prince wrote: "Why, I must ask, does being 'green' mean building with glass and steel and concrete and then adding wind turbines, solar panels, water heaters, sedum roofs, glass atria - all the paraphernalia of a new 'green building industry' - to offset buildings that are inefficient in the first place?

We (almost) made it happen

2010-07-08T12:34:00-07:00

News that I felt went through pretty much un-noticed in the last month was the publication of the latest Jones Lang LaSalle transparency index (you can register for free on JLL website and download the study here). For the first time since inception, the German market is part of the “tier 1” countries, along side with the UK, Australia, France and 12 other countries. More precisely Germany is

Real Life

2010-05-18T07:02:00-07:00

Some pictures of the Alte Post construction site And the promotional video of the asset

Ginger Ale

2010-04-22T09:33:00-07:00

The CMBS market is back. At least so they say. An article in the FT (which can be read here), suggests that a first 350 M€ CMBS was placed in the Netherland. That is real news, as the stall of the CMBS market is clearly one of the main concern still out there. It is becoming mainstream wisdom that there is a large debt overhang coming up, which is to a great part linked to CMBS. The bizarre

CETERIS PARIBUS

2010-03-12T13:19:00-08:00

alstria as a real estate company is very much interested in the debate relating Green Buildings and the better understanding of the fundamental of this new key development is an important factor in setting up the future strategy of the company. As part of background research work, I read recently a report called “Doing well by doing Good? Green Office Buildings”. It can be freely accessed

Corporate Ethic

2010-03-07T07:26:00-08:00

Corporate Responsibility and the Environment. This mini-doco by karma production came 3rd in the recent competition sponsored by Australian Ethical in association with the Australian Documentary Foundation. No comments.