OREANDA-NEWS. Correction: the sales of Pillar over nine months of 2015 updated to 12.5 million euros in the title and first paragraph.

Along with positive trends resumed in the real estate market, the performance of Pillar group companies is improving – Pillar sales over nine months have reached EUR 12.5 million. Whereas over nine months of 2014 amount of Pillar transactions constituted EUR 26.9 million.

There were 272 transactions made during nine months of this year, which is by 42% less than during nine months of 2014. This can be attributed to considerable decrease in the real estate portfolio managed by Pillar.

Number of transactions with private houses has increased significantly. There were 69 private houses sold this year, which is two times more than over nine months of 2014. The increase was facilitated by private house and land plot sale campaign launched this September. The campaign will last till the end of November this year, and within its framework we offer for sale private houses and land plots with a discount of up to 80%.

There were 166 uniform apartments sold, including 93 in Riga and 73 outside Riga. Furthermore, 14 land plots and 1 commercial property were sold this year.

We are proud to inform that the last premium-class apartment in Elizabetes Park House project has been sold. The large-scale renovation of this building, which is one of the most exclusive real estate projects in Riga, began in 2007, and the building was commissioned in spring of 2013. During two-and-a-half years, Pillar managed to sell all apartments, as well as rent out all commercial space, in this building. In addition,  21 apartments were sold in other new and renovated projects.

As a result of work performed earlier and commissioning the apartment block Miera Park House in Riga, at 57a Miera Street, the portfolio of Pillar premium-class apartments was expanded in September this year. Pillar bought this new building from an affiliate company of SEB bank in the beginning of 2013 for EUR 2.4 million. The amount of investments in renovation and finishing reached EUR 5.8 million. Many customers have already expressed their appreciation for the quality of this project: so far, 7 apartments have been sold and 4 apartments have been booked.

It should be noted that structural reorganization of Pillar group companies was successfully completed in September. The main objective of reorganization was to restructure and distribute the workload and areas of responsibility among companies operating in this area. Under the reorganization, the following three groups were formed: Pillar Management, SIA; Pillar Holding Company, KS; and group of companies New Hanza City, SIA. Each of them has its own tasks. Areas of operation of several companies were changed or expanded, and thus Pillar will be able to manage all stages of real estate development on its own – from project design, organization of construction works, supervision of their quality, sale of the properties to rendering utility and management services.

Ieva Valtere, Chief Executive Officer of Pillar, noted: “Although the beginning of the year was rather negative in the real estate market, activity was resumed in the following quarters. Therefore, we were able to substantially decrease the number of our properties, and we expect to sell the remaining part during the next 4 years. Thus we are able to devote all of our resources to the next cycle of Pillar operations, which mostly involves development of the large-scale New Hanza City project.”