REIM Helsinki Oy Ltd renovated its façade

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1 REIM Real Estate Investment and Management Oy Ltd # 57 Spring 2017 Helsinki Hämeenlinna Imatra Joensuu Jyväskylä Kouvola Lahti Lappeenranta Mikkeli Oulu Porvoo Tampere first name.last name@reimgroup.com Mailing address: PL Lappeenranta Suomi Finland REIM Helsinki Oy Ltd renovated its façade Visiting address: Väinö Valveen katu Lappeenranta Phone Real estate management union Isännöitsijäunioni Ltd merged into its parent company REIM Helsinki Ltd on 31 December The merge did not affect the day-to-day opera ons of Isännöitsijäunioni, but the company name changed while Isännöitsijäunioni Ltd remains as an auxiliary business name. The company office s façade has now gone through a change as well. REIM Helsinki operates in the heart of Helsinki at Kapteeninkatu 5 (00140 Helsinki) at the corner of Pietarinkatu, which is in the inner-city area with many valuable proper es. Our opera on is based on the needs of our customers, our exper se and know-how, the right a tude, cooperating and getting results for Ari Friman, CEO, real estate manager, AIT. our customers, emphasizing the comfort of living and the condi on of the real estate, and performance. Kai Kosunen, board vice-president. With the professional group of REIM Helsinki, dedicated to its work, we offer our current and future clients the modern and reliable expert services of an independent, private real estate management company that keeps up with the mes and con- nuously develops its opera on. REIM Helsinki Ltd Isännöitsijäunioni Kapteeninkatu 5 (corner of Pietarinkatu, street level), Helsinki Tel. (09) etunimi.sukunimi@reimgroup.com Professional services of REIM Group already since 1966 Real Estate Finance Brokerage 2016 astetta parempi Suomi Finland 100 vuotta År

2 www. likarelia.fi Väinö Valveen katu 2, Lappeenranta, Finland Phone Housing coopera ve Asunto Oy Suvantola valuable Finnish history in the heart of Helsinki A plunge into history through buying a plot and star ng a company New Customer REIM Helsinki Ltd At the turn of the century, the teaching staff of Suomalainen Normaalilyseo came up with the idea of building a residen al building for their own use. The leader of the project was W.E. Meurman, master of arts, who joined professors E. Bonsdorff and J.R. Danielson to create a committee to advance their project. In those days, the areas of Kaivopuisto and Eira were s ll unbuilt seashore, sca ered mainly with a couple of wooden houses here and there. The commi ee was intrigued by the area and determined to find a plot from the area for the building project. Their search was a success, and in the beginning of 1901 a contract of sale was made with senator E.R. Neovius and his wife. The purchase price of the plot was FIM 70,000, and the plot located in the seventh district of Helsinki, in block No 134 along Pietarinkatu 5. The committee called together a preparatory cons tutive meeting on 17 February 1901, and in addition to the commi ee, several teacher colleagues and a couple of outsiders took part in it. They decided to incorporate the real estate company that the plot was bought for, and the purchase of the plot was accepted. The committee had acquired drafts of blueprints from two architects for the mee ng. A new committee was chosen to take care of the required prepara ons and running errands, and it was formed by misters Lagus, Silander and Meurman. It was their responsibility to form the corporate by-laws and to work toward the progress of the build. Things seemed to go forward fast. The corporate by-laws were formed and le to be accepted by the senate. The required loans were prepared, and the building blueprints that were drawn by architect O. Törnqvist (professor Onni Tarjanne) were finished up to the point that the bids for the building contracts could be taken into the agenda during the spring. Five bids were received, but as the maker of the cheapest offer refused to bargain about his offer, the commi ee decided to consider building it themselves, which they also chose to do. They decided to hire construc on foreman Mr. Ahlstedt to run the build, with construction foreman Mr. Stenroos by his side. When the details, including special bids, were se led, the final cons tu ve shareholders meeting was held on 7 May 1901 as the Senate of Finland ratified the corporate by-laws on 19 April 1901 as follows: The Senate of Finland has presented Itself with the aforemen oned vassal s pe on, and sees reasonable, regarding the laws on housing cooperatives given on the 2 nd of May 1895, to accept and to ratify to be obeyed the previously presented mo on of the corporate bylaws of the housing coopera ve Osakeyh ö Suvantola. Shall all designated vassals abide by this. In the high name of His Majesty the Emperor, His Senate of Finland Constan n Linderz Vald. Eneberg Edv. Boehm E.R. Neovius H. Mechelin These were the grandiose words of the ra fica on of the company. (It should be taken into consideration, that Finland s first own specialized law concerning housing coopera ves came into effect only in 1926, preceded by Finland gaining independence in 1917 a er being an autonomous part of the Russian empire between , and a part of Sweden for 500 years before that.) The build starts with successful architecture and design, and gives excellent results In the cons tu ve mee ng, the shares were divided between eleven private persons, and the meeting approved of all the actions of the committee up to the purchase of the plot and the blueprints, and recommended to start the build without further ado, which had already begun from the part of the groundwork. The first board consisted of misters Lagus, Silander and Meurman, with Stenroos as a subs tute. W.E. Meurman was chosen as the company s execu ve director. Asunto Oy Suvantola was finished during , and thus is already 117 years old, with a significant and interes ng history. Judging by the short time that the preparations of the build took, it can be derived that bureaucracy was not a hindering factor at that time, as it is now. At first, the building plans included only the building on Neitsytpolku, and before the loan arrangements were in order, selling the second part of the plot was under considera- on. Luckily the loans were arranged in such a way, that they decided to build on the whole plot. Thus, in the spring of 1902, the architect was requested for blueprints also for the part of the plot on the side of Pietarinkatu. Even though the property is old, it must be admi ed that the commi ee s choice of architect was a success, since the layout of the apartments work quite well. Unfortunately, in the beginning of the century basically no closet spaces were built into the apartments, which has been a shortcoming in the apartments. The habit of the time was to include large cupboards and sideboards for clothes and linen into the furniture, and spare belongings and clothes were stored in the a c and the basement. When comparing Suvantola with several other proper es of the same era, it must be noted that it was ahead of its me. The old-time architecture did not have the cold formality and confined spaces like today, and in addi on to ar s c touches, also spaciousness, coziness and comfortability were applied. Values were not measured only in money then, but also humane points of view toward living were taken into consideration when designing buildings. When thinking about the modern mechanized building style in comparison to the turn of the century construction labor done mainly with manpower and basic tools, one must wonder that a property like Suvantola was finished in two years, the first part in 1902 and the second part in At the turn of the century, the construc on material was of excellent quality. In the bid, for example, the bricks were said to be iron bricks that had been fired to be extra-tough. The residents have discovered this over me, as they have tried to punch nails or drill into the walls. They always face an iron-hard brick, unless they hit a mortar joint. Everyday living was different than today When thinking about Finland s harsh climate with its cold winters and the fact that before central heating, the heat had to be acquired through the 226 fireplaces of the building, we begin to see that it did not come easily. Every apartment had to acquire the firewood it needed, which was usually purchased as meter-long blocks. The firewood was sawed and chopped either by the owners themselves or by hired loggers. The wood was carried through the kitchen staircase into wooden crates in the kitchen. The light fixtures were partly gaslights and partly electric lights. The kitchen staircase, the kitchen and the servant quarters had gaslights, and the others electric lights. Cooking was done mainly with wood-burning stoves, but also gas-stoves were in use. Bathrooms were equipped with wood-burning, standing water heater stoves that sa sfied the family s bathing needs, although several children had to bathe together for the hot water to suffi ce. There were no elevators, so exercising was automatic without the need for encouragement of an adver sing campaign. People were healthy, they had no knowledge about heart disease, they were sa sfied and lived old enough. Old-time families had lots of children, and despite the laundry of the washers that was hanging across the yard to dry, there was enough space for large groups of children to play around. Now cars try to take over the yards. Winters were also snowy back then, with huge piles of snow. The janitor was also one to be obeyed. The discipline was tough but just, and the parents trusted in the janitor s way of discipline, and it allowed the games to be played without disagreements. Janitors have been replaced by property maintenance companies in Finland ages ago. In 1928, Suvantola turned into an apartment house company, and the apartments needed to be divided among the shareholders, which was not easy but which was right and necessary. The realiza on of the elevators demanded a lot of time and effort in 1934, and they would probably not exist to this day had not the current real estate manager taken the responsibility of fulfilling the plan for the elevator, fully aware of poten ally being sued. A lot has changed from those days also in Suvantola. In the Helsinki city master plan, the Suvantola property has been marked as an object of protec- on, and its façade needs to be conserved as it is. This way, the beau ful work of art remains for the future genera ons to come.

3 All of us living in a housing coopera ve, either in a block of flats or in a terraced house, may wonder from me to me how the maintenance fees that we pay monthly are used. O en we also feel that living costs keep rising even if we try to cut them to the minimum. According to Statistics Finland, the maintenance fees of blocks of flats in Southern Finland differ slightly depending on how old the property is On an average, the maintenance fees were 4,62 /m² in The smallest fees were in buildings that were built in the 21st century, and the highest were in buildings from the 90s. However, the differences between decades were small as the range was between 4,31 and 5,52 Euro. How are the expenses divided in a housing coopera ve? According to the statistics of Statistics Finland, the expenses are divided into a few main categories: personnel, real estate tax, repairs, hea ng, services and maintenance, water, rent and other costs. For the housing cooperative, the largest expenses by far are the repairs, heating, contracted REIM Group is now on Facebook What do I pay for in a housing coopera ve? The CEO of REIM Porvoo Ltd Frank Wendelin ponders and clarifies in his column what the expenses of housing coopera ves include, and if you can cut them. out services, water, and real estate tax. The share of the services, which include both winter and summer upkeep, cleaning, maintenance, and real estate management and fi nancial administra on, are about 19% of all the expenses of the housing cooperative, which is 0,88 /m 2. The majority of the expenses, about 80% are related to energy, water, taxes and repairs of the building, which is about 3,74 /m². So where can we save money? Inves ng in the technology of the buildings can definitely save us some money in the energy costs such as water, heat and electricity. However, we need to produce enough heat for the building, so saving only by lowering the temperature does not get us very far. Is it possible for us to affect the tax expenses, such Mailing address: PL 34, Lappeenranta Visiting address: Väinö Valveen katu 2, Lappeenranta The distribution of the expenses of a block of flats in 2015 Services and maintenance 19% as the value added tax, energy tax and real estate tax? In the short run, not really. It is difficult, cutting the costs of a housing cooperative. What options do we have then? Services are the easiest section to influence in the short run, could we possibly plow the snow ourselves or could some of the shareholders take care of the financial administra on? Contracted out services that the housing coopera ve buys, regardless if it is plowing snow, cleaning, real estate management or financial administra- on, are the only ones in the housing coopera ve that are produced by people, and are made by hand so to speak. Services and their share is under 20% of the housing coopera ve s expenses. This means, that the owner of a 50 square, one-bedroom apartment pays about 40 per month for snow plowing, lawnmowing, maintenance, cleaning, real estate management and fi nancial administra on. That s what you pay for a good broadband connec- on or Pay-TV. Frank Wendelin CEO REIM Porvoo Oy frank.wendelin@reimgroup. com Petri Sinisalo to be the superior of the real estate managers of REIM Lah Other 15 % Water 8% Rent 2% Real estate tax 8% Heating 21% Repairs 26% Personnel 1% Petri, born and bred in Lah-, is a 46-year old Master of Science in Technology from Helsinki University of Technology specialized in real estate and commercial premises management. He has also studied management of commercial premises in the Dutch Hanzehogeschool van Groningen. Petri Sinisalo, born and bred in Lah, started his work as the superior of REIM Lah Ltd s real estate managers. His job descrip on includes also the development of real estate management opera ons and gaining new customers. He will also personally manage real estate objects. Petri came in to the service of REIM Lah from the office of a voca onal lecturer from the regional college Salpaus Further Educa on in Lah, where he taught mainly real estate management for 12 years. During his career as a teacher, Petri s passion was, together with the collaborating companies, to develop the voca onal educa on to be even more based on working life, and to be more individual and posi ve towards entrepreneurship. Before his teacher s career, Petri has worked, inter alia, as a real estate manager, development director and branch manager at VVO Kiinteistövastuu Ltd, which at the me at the turn of the 21st century was a part of the VVO-concern. At Kiva, which operated in 16 locali es, he was responsible for the customer-oriented and successful execution of real estate management, technical real estate management, financial administration and leasing services nationwide, and for developing the services and tools. Petri has experience about management from VVO and Päijät-Häme Waste Management Ltd (PHJ), where he worked as a customer service manager for two years. During his me at VVO, Petri also worked as a part- me lecturer and educator at Kiinko Real Estate Educa on and taught real estate management (AIT) and entrepreneurship. Petri has been close to the field of real estate management his whole life. He says he has watched carefully as his father worked as a real estate manager in Lah from the beginning of the 1980s, and he has also gained experience as a fulltime janitor-cleaner from summer jobs in several housing coopera ves in Lah throughout his studies. Petri works as the superior of the real estate managers of REIM Lah, develops the real estate management operation and is responsible for gaining new customers. He will also have personal objects of real estate management in Lah. 12 th REIM Group St. Petersburg Badminton & Real Estate Seminar 2017 Invita onal

4 Na onal Account and Tax Days 2017, the 50 me of success From REIM Finance, REIM Kymi and Tilikarelia par cipated the 2017 Na onal Account and Tax Days on 23rd and 24th of January in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki The best parts for me were (according to the feedback of par cipants of Na onal Account and Tax Days 2016) Current topics of lectures and the good atmosphere of the event Wri en lecture material, that one can return to a erwards Discussions with colleagues www. likarelia.fi Väinö Valveen katu 2, Lappeenranta, Finland Phone The 2017 Na onal Account and Tax Days program included the following topics, to men on a few (lecturers in brackets): Can the Na onal Account and Tax Days live to be some 100 years old? (Esko Valtaoja, researcher of the future, professor of astronomy at the University of Turku); Accoun ng and the financial The CEO of Tilikarelia Ltd Arja Anun and accountant Jaana Suomalainen traveled among others from Lappeenranta to Helsinki via train, which takes now under two hours. statement (Sirpa Koponen, KLT, HT, CEO of Tilipalvelu Sirpa Koponen Oy); Company taxation (Risto Walden, KLT, LL.Lic., Bilanssi Ltd); Contract laws [Kari Hoppu, D.Sc. (Econ.), LL.M., professor at Aalto University School of Business]; The renewal of tax procedures what changes and what do you do in practice (Elena Vigren, LL.M., director of changes in legisla on, Finnish Tax Administra on, Valmis-project unit); Taxa on of an entrepreneur [Kari Alhola, M.Sc. (Econ.), tax specialist, Alhola Consulting Ltd]; Management accoun ng (Jukka Hämäläinen, KLT, MBA, HT, Nettomaster Ltd); Corporate law (Mikko Reinikainen, LL.M., partner at PwC); Prepayments of tax (Tomi Peltomäki, president of the correc on board, Finnish Tax Administration), Value Added Tax (Kirsti Auranen, LL.M., VAT specialist, partner at Ernst & Young Ltd); and The structure of financial administra on 50 years ago, now, and tomorrow (Vuokko Mäkinen, president of the board of Taloushallintolii o). Accountants Jaana Suomalainen, KLT, Aija Hiiva KLT, Arja Anun, CEO of Tilikarelia, Erja Savurinne-Jurvanen, office manager, KLT, of REIM Kymi, and Elena Kiseleva of Tilikarelia joined the 1300 experts of the field. Missing from the photograph is accountant Satu Ojapalo of REIM Kymi, who also a ended the event. Researcher of the future, astronomy professor Esko Valtaoja from the University of Turku opened the 50th Na onal Account and Tax Days with his speech. Finlandia Hall on the shore of Helsinki s Töölönlah Bay has tradi onally been the loca on for the annual Na onal Account and Tax Days. The TV news reporter and presenter Peter Nyman was responsible for hosting the Na onal Account and Tax Days this year. About 1300 financial administra on managers, CEO s of accounting companies, KLT-experts, company financial managers, representors of the tax administra on, and teachers of accoun ng take part in the event annually.

5 REIM Group is now on Facebook Timo Multanen is the new blogger of the digital version of the Finnish Real Estate Journal Suomen Kiinteistöleh The Finnish Real Estate Federa on 110 years the book Kansan osake, suomalaisen asuntoosakeyh ön vaiheet is worth reading Mailing address: PL 34, Lappeenranta Visiting address: Väinö Valveen katu 2, Lappeenranta kiinteistolehti.fi/blogi/ As Finland celebrates its centenary of independence, the Finnish Real Estate Federa on (FREF) celebrated its 110 years of opera- on in Helsinki at a celebratory seminar on 9 February. The star ng point of the modern FREF was in 1907 in Helsinki, when Juho Lallukka, representing the house-owners associa on of Viborg, Talonomistajainyhdistys, struck his mallet while all other exis ng associa ons for house-owners were present. From that date, we have gone a long historical way up ll today. One significant year was 1926, when the separate law about housing coopera- ves saw daylight. Prac cally, it meant switching to people s capitalism, but, more importantly, it gave regular people the chance to own an apartment. Urho Kekkonen, then the prime minister of Finland and later the long- me president of Finland, published a book in 1952, the same year of the Helsinki Olympics, titled Onko maallamme mal a vaurastua?, which asks if our country has the patience to become rich. The message of Kekkonen and his book was, that the country had to be industrialized significantly. Investments needed to be made, which required capital. Expenses needed to be controlled to get richer. I have o en thought about our housing coopera ve system, which is quite extraordinary in both Europe s and the whole world s scales, and its effects in the development of our na onal economy. Ci zens saved money for their owned dwellings and for paying for them, and that money could be used for posi ve development in the society by the financial system during a time when there was li le capital. I have waited for someone to write their doctoral thesis about this subject. In the aforemen oned FREF celebration, the participants were handed out the book Kansan osake, suomalaisen asunto-osakeyhtiön vaiheet about the history of the FInnish housing coopera ves wri en by Mar Lujanen, Esko Nurmi and Laura Puro, and published by FREF. This 246-page book is s ll wai ng on the top of the pile of books I am going to read, and I am looking forward to reading it. According to the table of contents, Esko Nurmi writes about the birth of the housing cooperative system between 1864 and 1939 with the tle Pienistä pääomista syntyy talo, small capitals build a house. Laura Puro continues by telling about the expansion and deepening of the housing cooperative system between 1939 and 2010 with the title Suomalaisen asumisen kivijalka, the foundation of Finnish living. Mar Lujanen s part is Meillä ja muualla, our way and their way, which tells about the housing coopera- ves in an interna onal comparison. All of the topics are very interes ng. I hope that everyone who received this history book at the seminar, and as many real estate professionals as possible, get acquainted with and read this book. The old and s ll valid truth is, that if we do not know our history, we will not understand the ac ons of today, and we are even less equipped to understand and plan the future. Over 35 years of professional expertise of real estate business. Real estate manager of the year Wide international knowledge and contacts around the world. Worked as the CEPI European Council of Real Estate Professions President with real estate management and business member organizations from 27 EU-countries. The fulltime president of REIM Group concern board. Worked as a columnist in several publications from newspapers to professional publications. Hobbies include gastronomy (Rotisseurs since 1991) and wine (Saimaan Munskänkarna since 1991), literature, travel, music and badminton. The first REIM Group concern board mee ng of 2017 in Mikkeli The REIM Group concern board gathered to their first day-long mee ng on the last day of January in Mikkeli. The program begun at the Länsi-Savo publishing house with an introduc on of the significant Tikka concern. Mikkelin Klubi was the loca on of the concern board mee ng, where lunch was also served (the main course was Vorschmack á la marshal Mannerheim and pike-perch á la Walevska). More informa on in Finnish about the club founded in 1894 from The next object of introduc- on was the new REIM Mikkeli office, from where the journey continued to the famous Mikkelin Klubi, Mikkeli Club, where the concern board meeting took place and where lunch was served in Mannerheim s style. The day ended with the speech of the technical manager of Mikkeli at the city hall about Mikkeli itself, and its future projects. Mikkeli technical manager Jouni Riihelä gave an interes ng speech to the people of REIM. The president of Länsi-Savo concern board Jukka Tikka gave an interes ng introduc- on about the company s history and the current situa on with its challenges. Mikkeli city hall from 1912, designed by architect Selim A. Lindqvist. Länsi-Savo concern is a prominent company, and a part of its newspapers are currently also the most significant publica ons in their area: Etelä-Saimaa, Itä-Savo, Kouvolan Sanomat, Kymen Sanomat, Länsi-Savo and Uu svuoksi. CEO Ilkka Tikka introduces the headquarters at Mikkeli, and REIM listens (from the le ): Asko Laukkanen (CEO of REIM Mikkeli), Jani Takala, Kai Kosunen, Saija Toivonen, Kari Metsäkallio and Timo Multanen.