The Management Board of listed Instone Real Estate Group SE has adjusted its guidance for the 2026 financial year. With forecasting visibility remaining below average, management assumes that the full-year targets originally communicated will, in all likelihood, not be achieved. The reassessment is prompted by a changed market environment characterised by noticeable reluctance on the buyer side.
The company cites persistently high macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties as the primary factors. Among other things, the rise in interest rates in the third quarter of 2026 had a significantly stronger impact than anticipated on the willingness of private and institutional investors to execute transactions. The original assumption that the conflict in the Middle East would only affect operating business over the short term has not materialised. Particularly in the private buyer segment, interest rate levels weighed noticeably on demand.
Postponement of institutional transactions into the 2027 financial year
The altered operating conditions are leading to a noticeable deceleration of decision-making processes on the buyer side. Consequently, planned completions are shifting into the coming financial year. For institutional transactions originally slated for the current 2026 financial year, the company has already received letters of intent for closing in the first quarter of 2027.
- —Sales: EUR 500 to 600 million are now expected, compared to the previously targeted EUR 650 to 750 million.
- —Adjusted revenues: The forecast stands at around EUR 450 million instead of the previous EUR 550 to 600 million.
- —Adjusted earnings after tax: EUR 25 to 30 million is expected, down from the previous EUR 35 to 40 million.
- —Adjusted gross margin: At over 28 per cent, an improvement is emerging compared to the previous target value of over 24 per cent.
The adjusted guidance incorporates the results for the first nine months of the 2026 financial year. Adjusted revenues during this period amounted to EUR 288.1 million, down from EUR 347.5 million achieved in the prior-year period. Adjusted earnings after tax stood at EUR 12.2 million after three quarters, compared to EUR 21.4 million in the previous year.
Sales reached EUR 173.3 million in the first nine months, compared to EUR 229.0 million in the prior-year period, with institutional transactions anticipated for the fourth quarter not yet included. Regardless of the reduced full-year targets, the company is maintaining its distribution plans: for the 2026 financial year, the Management Board intends, unchanged, to pay a dividend of EUR 0.43 per share.
