Sold off-market: Bonum had 400 interested parties on list

(Finansavisen): Historic "Villa Fredly" was bought by Bonum last year for 50 million kroner for conversion into nine luxury flats. Now all have been sold at prices between 9 and 21 million kroner, writes Finansavisen.

"Interest was very strong. Bonum had 400 interested parties on the list and all the flats were sold without being put on the open market," says estate agent at Privatmegleren Aveny, Jo Christian Fossum, to the newspaper.

The villa, which is located at Drammensveien 41 in Oslo, was bought in 2015 by the property developer Bonum, whose largest owner is Espen Tollefsen Lundqvist.

According to the newspaper, the total sales value for the flats is just over 133 million kroner, which gives an average price of nearly 15 million kroner per flat.

Demanding conversion

The villa was originally Fred Olsen's childhood home, but has also housed the nightclub Noble Dancer and served as Oslobanken's head office. In recent times it has been used as an office building, as well as being rented out as a venue for functions.

According to marketing manager and partner at Bonum, Ruben Wilhelmsen, the conversion of Villa Fredly has been very extensive and demanding.

"It is challenging to build flats in an old shell, which must be preserved in its entirety," he tells the newspaper, but does not wish to say anything about the profit margin on the project.

"Bonum does not have the accounts ready for the project and does not wish to disclose that now. But this has been a costly project and the construction costs are higher than what one can expect for a classic new-build. It is certainly demanding with major refurbishment and conversion projects like this, but the advantage as Bonum sees it is that the properties often have a charm and soul that is difficult to create for new-build projects. But this naturally affects the margins negatively," says Wilhelmsen to Finansavisen.