Exclusive Real Estate – Ott Immobilien

For over 50 years, Ott Immobilien has owned, sold, developed, let and managed properties across residential and commercial sectors. As one of the leading German real estate firms, Ott Immobilien has always combined professional responsibility with profound expertise, detailed market knowledge, strategic partnerships and individual and personalised client support. In the near future, they seek to expand nationally and globally.

When Dieter Ott founded Ott Immobilien in 1959, it started off as a small brokerage firm. Initially the company primarily acquired used buildings before they focussed increasingly on selling, acquisitions, and developments of multi-family units and general brokerage services. When his son Stephan became more involved in the family business in 2004, Ott Immobilien’s primary focus on Cologne, North-Rhine Westphalia steadily expanded to include the US market. Having studied in Boston and New York, Stephan managed to provide a fresh, international impetus for Ott Immobilien. Today, Ott Immobilien is able to offer holistic real estate solutions from brokerage to investment management. Stephan Ott declares: “We’re a one-stop shop for real estate.“

Expertise through tradition

Ott Immobilien was able to withstand the test of time through a traditional, yet undervalued approach.“Germany’s brokerage sector is oversaturated and lacks experts who can and want to relate to the customer. That’s why we’re here,“ says Stephan Ott. With their regional expertise and extensive network, their skilled team of specialist employees is sure to fulfil the highest quality and service demands, as well as to offer personalised client support. Seeing themselves as holistic service providers, individual wishes of clients stand at the core of Ott Immobilien’s doings.“Our team offers customised solutions for each property, as well as the best possible and most realistic advice,“ Stephan Ott notes. He adds:“The reputation we were able to build up over time has led to high client retention and an ever growing referral network. Our personal approach stands out from competitors who often sacrifice genuineness and politeness. We focus on integrity and honesty, as well as transparency – all crucial components of our industry.” For more than 50 years, Ott Immobilien has adhered to these philosophies. In doing so, Father and Son, along with long-time COO Dirk Frenzel, have united all needed competencies under one roof in their headquarters in Cologne.

Property sales

“Each property is unique and associated with a high material and emotional value. Thus, it deserves the highest attention,” says Stephan Ott. Whether a client wants to sell a house, an apartment or an office building, Ott Immobilien accompanies their clients throughout the entire selling process, from personal initial consultation to the notary appointment and even after the contract conclusion.Their expert team, led by home-grown sales head Sven Becker, is sure to offer tailor-made solutions with a high degree of expertise and reliability whether for a house in need of rehabilitation, a divorce property or one with financing problems. Part of this process includes finding the right market price. Ott Immobilien knows the different price levels in line with the markets and includes all factors which can influence property value to find a corresponding, and realistic, selling price for each property through a free and non-binding market price assessment.

Property development

Over the years, Ott Immobilien has been involved in development, coordinating multi-family housing projects from planning through to execution across the region. Whether a ground-up construction or the renovation and division of existing properties into condominiums, these approaches have been at the centre of the company activities. “Development is crucial within Germany as, statistically speaking, supply continues to lag demand and this trend is only poised to continue.Those who have the resources and access to the limited available land within core cities will be more than thrilled with their investments years down the line,”claims Stephan Ott. Ott Immobilien continues to expand its role in the sourcing, brokering and management of development projects.

Property rentals

One cannot dismiss the importance of property rentals, as Ott Immobilien are able to find the perfect tenant for each property through diligence and their long-term local and market knowledge. They individually advise and accompany their clients in all phases of the renting process from taking over the property from the tenant, to the realisation of special client wishes, object presentation, marketing measures, contract design, handover of the property and posttransaction follow up and support. A strong network and a comprehensive database of prospective tenants offer each property a solvent customer base. Even when a property is left in a bad state following a tenancy, Ott Immobilien is able to competently and reliably stand by its clients’ side through a network of renovation experts. Their team of specialists optimises the rentability and value of an object in an efficient, prompt and cost-effective way.

Property management

Besides offering common estate agent services, Ott Immobilien successfully manages a continuously growing portfolio of thirdparty and company-owned properties. For this reason, Ott Immobilien founded its property management division in 1990 for all property and rental management services. Since then, clients can expect personal care and advice, as well as custom-made and holistic property management services from a single source. The company‘s offers range from commercial and legal to technical management services of properties. For this, Ott Immobilien closely cooperates with a network of property specialists and handicraft businesses because their “ultimate goal is to increase the value of our clients‘ properties”, according to Stephan Ott.

Investment management and venture capital

The aforementioned services have been trademarks of the Ott brand for many years, and now Ott Immobilien seeks to expand nationally and globally. While they have already targeted core cities including Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, their primary focus remains the preservation of company culture. Thus, even though the team will significantly grow, Stephan Ott points out that their “values, with an emphasis on personalised service, will stay at the core of our operations”. At the moment, Stephan Ott, together with business partner and collegiate roommate Peter Cohen, has launched NewYork-based Ott CapitalVentures, which acts as the official investment management division of Ott Immobilien.This represents Ott Immobilien’s expansion of their diverse portfolio on to an international stage.

“It’s exciting times for us. Ott Capital Ventures is sourcing investment in Germany and the USA for property projects and innovative start-ups in the real estate sector. By fusing real estate-oriented projects in top US and core German cities we are giving investors access to new markets while providing the comfort of local oversight. From a business standpoint, we want to support the growth of infrastructure, business and philanthropy in these locales as it is our duty to contribute our part to these economies,”comments Stephan Ott. He adds:“This is critical as desirable cities continue to grow.The omnipresent urbanisation leads to the loss of suburbs and residential housing space gets increasingly important while also creating opportunities for new businesses and services to succeed. Furthermore, in times of the media-labelled ‘migration crisis‘, it is our duty to do something and this includes the real estate sphere. We need to put an increasing focus on development and on providing social housing in short term.“

Currently in the middle of the investment phase, Ott Capital Ventures is expected to close at the end of next year. “With the constantly evolving environment, we continue to adapt and deliver the best service that our customers deserve. Our mission is to become THE real estate solution,“ concludes Stephan Ott.

Text: Nane Steinhoff | Photos: Ott Immobilien

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