Tekst retrieved from Vastgoedjournaal - translated
"Founding a successful real estate company in 10 years. Deniz Yilmaz made it happen, CEO of Ocean Group. Yilmaz started at the height of the real estate crisis and now, 10 years later, there stands a professional organisation that is increasingly focused on developing residential real estate.
Deniz Yilmaz's roots are not in real estate. "I studied business administration at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, did several masters and later trained as a chartered accountant. I didn't find that challenging enough, so I made the switch to real estate in 2011. It started with one flat, but pretty soon it became two, three and so on," says the CEO. The portfolio kept growing and Ocean grew with it.
Raising the bar ever higher
The CEO never had a specific goal of building a professional organisation in 10 years. "With real estate, you are constantly stimulated by new opportunities. But I always tried to keep focus and look ahead every 2-3 years. We raised the bar higher and higher, and so within 10 years Ocean Group became a mature organisation with its own development and management branch. Meanwhile, there is also a long-term vision for further growth," says the CEO.
Steering on three points and quality
Yilmaz did notice that, as his organisation grew larger, it needed more structure. "We steer on three points, many of which are interlinked and in line with each other: key performance indicators (KPIs), risks and financials," says the CEO. "Focusing on these three points not only gives us clear insight into how our portfolio has developed and is performing now, but also allows us to quickly and efficiently generate our forecasts for the future. This really helps us keep the quality of our portfolio high and ensure our service level. In addition, we have everything 'in-house'. The only thing we currently outsource is letting. We leave that to estate agents. This way of working suits us well. We find that we are doing things better and more efficiently and, as a result, completing our projects faster and faster and with the desired high level of quality," says the CEO.
Data and DNA
"After a while, we realised that we had grown so big that we needed an ERP system. We spent a lot of time and energy looking for the most suitable software. Because of my background as a chartered accountant, we put a lot of emphasis on the financial functionalities and actually being able to automate periodic processes. When you do that, you work in a structured way and with that you automatically get better data. And that is the ultimate goal, because with structured data you can easily define your KPIs and adjust them if necessary. In the end, we chose Bloxs because they stood head and shoulders above the others on these points. In retrospect, we can also say that the 'DNA' of the people working at Bloxs matches that of our organisation. Hands on, helpful and focused on quality and success. That is also how we work," says Yilmaz.
The future
For now, Ocean has not yet outgrown as a company. "I think we have shown a nice development over the past 10 years. Initially, our focus was on the The Hague and Rotterdam regions. But now we are looking at opportunities throughout the Randstad and even beyond. We are increasingly working together with municipalities on inner-city developments. We are also looking at other types of property. We are very competent in residential real estate, but logistical real estate meanwhile also has our attention. I don't know what the future will bring us, but in any case, we assume it will be a great one!", concludes Yilmaz proudly.
About Ocean
Ocean Group is a real estate organisation with a focus on inner-city (re)developments, where the tenant of the property is central. Ocean Group is competent in residential real estate and develops, invests and manages mainly for the benefit of its own rental portfolio.
About Bloxs
Within Bloxs Software B.V., innovative software is developed for Real Estate Investment and Property Management Organisations. The products, including a complete SaaS (Software as a Service) based ERP solution, automate real estate processes, generate insight and are easy to use."
From Vastgoedjournaal (25 March 2021)