Exporo is a crowd investing platform that grants everyone access to professional and attractive real estate projects.

Interview with Exporo’s three founders: Julian Oertzen, Simon Brunke, Dr. Björn Maronde

What is Exporo’s history? 

The company was founded in 2014 by Simon Brunke, Dr. Björn Maronde, Tim Bütecke and Julian Oertzen. Since 2014 the FinTech start-up has successfully funded 51 real estate projects and has brokered over € 66 million. Over € 11 million have been successfully repaid to investors.

Can you describe Exporo in figures?

Exporo real estate investments are direct, transparent and easy: Investors can invest in attractive real estate projects with as little as €500. Additionally, they can benefit from short terms (24 month average) and high cash returns of up to 5,00% to 6,00%.

63 Successfully funded projects
Over € 84 million successfully brokered capital
Over € 13 successfully repaid capital

Please explain the investment rating on your platform

Exporo has introduced a new and standardized risk assessment rating system. Investors will now be able to compare projects with each other according to the investment rating.

A dedicated team of real estate experts control and assess each project according to selected criteria and industry and investment data.

There are 6 categories: AA – F. (AA is the highest possible rating, F is the lowest possible rating). Assessment is conducted according to the following criteria: Real Estate Location, Allocation of Capital (Subordinated, Non-Subordinated), Rental Status, Real Estate Development Status, Experience of the Project Developers, Measures to Reduce Risks.

What ROI can investors expect?

Exporo currently uses subordinated loans as an investment vehicle in order to provide mezzanine capital to the project developer. By using a subordinated loan investors directly provide funds to the project developer. At the end of the term, the subordinated loan including the fixed interest will be paid back to the investors directly.

Registering with Exporo and using the platform is free of charge. Capital providers don’t have to pay any fees for their investment either. The investment is fully dedicated to the selected real estate project and the interest will be applied to the capital.

At the end of the term, the provided capital will be paid back to the investors. Depending on the project, a fixed interest rate of 5 to 6 % p.a. will be applied. The provider of the subordinated loan is entitled to pay back the funds prior to the end of the term. In this case the full interest entitlement becomes payable. The return of investment (ROI) improves considerably.

What is the average term planned for the property investments?

Our project terms are short and generally only run for 18 to 36 months.

What are the main risks for investors and how does Exporo mitigate them?

In recent years we have witnessed that unpredictable external factors can lead to a real estate market crash. This does not necessarily have any impact on the real estate project. In areas with a high population density and housing shortage as well as a steady population growth, the effects are not likely to be felt and should therefore not put the real estate project at risk. Even in this case, the following still applies: The investors’ entitlement to a timely repayment of the investment amount including the interest rate remains unaffected.

With subordinated loans there aren’t any co-determination rights as there would be during a general meeting of a stock company. So apart from providing the investment, there aren’t any additional obligations, generally speaking. In particular, margin calls will not occur.

The investment offer is based on a fixed term. In general, the following applies to the investor: Funds cannot be accessed during the term.

Despite thorough and careful preliminary assessments by experts, the investment may be considered risky and can result in a total loss of the funds.

How does Exporo mitigate the risks?

To date, every single real estate project has been successfully financed in its entirety, and all repayments to investors have been made on time.

Investing in real estate projects is associated with entrepreneurial risks. This is why it’s very important to us to only share selected projects with investors. The projects are selected carefully. In a two-stage process potential projects are filtered to meet and surpass Exporo’s quality standards. In the end only 2 – 5% of the project requests are approved for investment.

A dedicated team of trained employees controls and assesses every single project according to industry and investment data. In a multi-level assessment process all relevant real estate and project related information is analysed and reviewed by our team. Exporo investors are then able to review the assessment of the real estate project. An example for the criteria for the project assessment is the location of the project. This category of the assessment includes the micro and macro location of the object as well as related factors, such as the spatial-temporal development, buying power, attractiveness of jobs and vacancy. Furthermore, our experts recalculate all construction costs with a mark up. Additionally all possible market prices are also calculated with a mark down, so that reliable costs as well as realistic sales prices are available. The development phase of the project also has an impact on the risk assessment. Generally speaking, a project in an advanced developmental phase bears lower risks.

You can view our detailed risk assessment here.

For more information on exporo visit : https://exporo.de/

We thank Julian Oertzen, Simon Brunke, Dr. Björn Maronde for the interview.