June has brought us both unexpected and already predictable turnouts, but for the most part, we saw very promising progress on a number of our Bulkestate initiatives. The world remains in a delicate economic situation and there will be further challenges down the road, but we are happy with the progress that the company is making and we are confident that our investors will be well rewarded for their patience during this period.
Let’s look at some of the major developments in the past month to give you more insights and an overall sense of what’s been happening across the company.
Provada 2022
We are continuing to participate in live events and have relished the opportunity to reconnect with the industry at large. In June we participated in Provada 2022 which was held in Amsterdam. This is the largest real estate exhibition in the Netherlands and we sought to make the most of it by meeting with investors, looking for new partnerships, and connecting with fellow professionals in the space.
Our team squeezed every second out of the experience and we have lots of exciting follow-ups to do as a result. If you were there and we didn’t get a chance to catch up – please do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!
Bishop’s Quarter
We haven’t launched a new group buying deal in a while – but it was well worth the wait. In June, we finally prepared quite a deal called Bishop’s Quarter – a fascinating building complex right in the heart of the old part of Riga. This three-building complex, split across the streets of Miesnieku and Mazā Muzeju, is located in a perfect position to take advantage of the cultural and entertainment opportunities in this prestigious area.
The property consists of a great mix of apartments, office space, and commercial premises – making it one of our most exciting projects yet. The project itself is currently in its ‘coming soon’ phase and we look forward to sharing more information on it. So keep your eyes peeled for what should be a tantalizing investment offering for all.
Cashback Campaign
We mentioned this in a prior update and we have already launched a summer cashback campaign for new investors to encourage more people to enter the world of real estate crowdfunding. You can find more details here and we hope that you’ll share this with the people you know who might find value in such an opportunity.
First Flash Project
June also saw the financing of our very first Flash project which has diversified our investment offers and offers deals for investors who are ready for bolder opportunities. While more grounded investors choose to continue investing in our standard investment opportunities with a fixed annual rate, the adventurous ones could participate in a deal that allowed winning 1 500 EUR for a 50 EUR investment. Nevertheless, our first winner has already received his prize and is announced in our blog. We’ll also have published a short article where we talk to the winner of first Flash project.
Direct Exit
To continue with additional features on the platform, we have developed a tool in response to the current macroeconomic challenges. In June, we successfully launched Direct Exit – a mechanism for investors to exit certain deals when it might be prudent to do so. We wrote more about it here if you’d like to dive in further.
This solution was designed for complicated projects and very specific situations and in June we saw the first experiment with this feature up and running. There will be more to follow on this but the testing is going well and we are confident that this will serve as a great initiative to protect the interests of our investors and provide additional liquidity where required.
Going forward, those projects that qualify for Direct Exit will be marked with a special symbol in the investor cabinet itself so you’ll always know which ones are applicable for this particular opportunity. There will also be further communication in the forum section so you can keep up to date with the latest developments in this new offering.
Bulkestate has joined AREIP
We’re proud to announce that Bulkestate has joined the Association of Real Estate Investment Platforms (AREIP). This brings together a wide variety of real estate platforms that will come together to shape the future of our industry. We all share a common goal of standardizing and improving how these platforms work so that we can bring more people into this asset class.
We’re very excited to be a part of it and can’t wait to see what sorts of collaborations will be possible with our fellow members.
Aleksandra Apartments
Lastly, we wanted to share an update on the Aleksandra Apartments project. The fourth deal “Commercial premises” has finally been repaid – after some significant delays. This was one of the most complicated projects we’ve ever been a part of and the pandemic amongst other things pushed us far beyond our original plan which should have been completed two years ago now.
Our team has been working as hard as they can to engineer the best possible solution for our investors, but we know this has taken much longer than everyone anticipated. We are very grateful for the patience of our investors during this period.
We are now happy to announce that the repayment has been made in full, comprising the missing monthly payment, the principal investment amount, and a penalty fee for the delayed period. This is obviously not what we had originally planned but we feel very happy that we were able to recoup every single cent for our investors and reward their loyalty through what has been a challenging deal.
There are a few other projects currently experiencing delays and we will tackle those with the same vigour that we have this one. Our goal remains steadfast to protect the interests of investors and deliver on the value that they deserve. The delayed projects are mainly development objects that have seen some setbacks in their construction progress and, thus, have slowed down the sales schedule. While the development projects will be surely completed as soon as all planned sales are done, some loans face delays for other reasons, that include borrowers’ inability to make a repayment due to lack of funds, slow refinancing process as well as one particularly complicated heritage case.
Nevertheless, our team is working on every delay scenario, individually sorting out the best possible solution and we are looking forward to announcing some repayments in the nearest future. We always welcome any feedback and comments and wish all our investors to enjoy the Summer to the fullest while we will take care of the investments and deals.
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That brings us to the end of a bumper month here at Bulkestate. Amid a tumultuous global situation, we have managed to stay true to our values and continue to deliver great investment opportunities of all kinds for our members. We hope that you can bear with us as we navigate these murky waters and know that we continue to work as hard as we can to keep improving our platform, our projects, and our offerings.