Vonovia sells apartments - proceeds in the billions achieved
Vonovia, Germany's largest residential real estate group, is making progress with the planned sale of apartments. New construction projects worth around 357 million euros have been sold to CBRE Investment Management, the DAX-listed company announced in Bochum on Friday.
Some of the apartments are still being completed. CBRE, a real estate asset manager, acquired a total of 1,200 apartments in Berlin at a price slightly below book value. Only recently, Vonovia sold 1213 apartments to the city of Dresden for 87.8 million euros. The sale of commercial real estate, among other things, would be added to this.
Vonovia also intends to raise further funds by selling another stake in a real estate portfolio. Vonovia will sell around 30 percent of its portfolio in northern Germany to the financial investor Apollo for one billion euros. The majority of the approximately 31,000 apartments are located in Kiel, Bremen and Lübeck. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Apollo has already acquired a minority stake in Vonovia's Südewo portfolio in Baden-Württemberg for the same amount this year.
According to Vonovia, it generated total proceeds of around EUR 3.7 billion this year from the sale of apartments and minority interests. Originally, the DAX-listed company wanted to generate around two billion euros from the sales this year. After years of expansion, Vonovia wants to part with around 66,000 apartments with a total value of around 13 billion euros. The DAX-listed company intends to use the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt.
548,000 apartments in Germany, Sweden and Austria
Meanwhile, day-to-day business was worse for Vonovia. Operating profit fell by 8.4 percent year-on-year to 1.45 billion euros in the first nine months. While business with project development, the sale of apartments and additional services in particular was weaker, the rental business performed significantly better due to the continued high demand for affordable housing in metropolitan areas.
According to Group figures, rents rose to an average of EUR 7.67 per square meter across the Group at the end of September - 2.7% more than a year earlier. Sales shrank by 8.1 percent to 4.2 billion euros in the nine-month period. The bottom line for the reporting period was a loss of 3.8 billion euros due to billion-euro devaluations of the real estate portfolio in the first half of the year. In the previous year, Vonovia had reported a profit of 2.2 billion euros. The company confirmed its annual targets.
Vonovia has grown strongly in recent years during the low-interest phase, primarily through acquisitions in Germany and abroad. The Group also benefited from rising rents in major cities and new builds. In 2021, Vonovia took over Germany's second-largest landlord Deutsche Wohnen. As Europe's largest private housing company, the Group owns a total of around 548,000 apartments in Germany, Sweden and Austria.
Vonovia's quarterly figures show a significant leap in proceeds from the sale of apartments, with around 1.1 billion euros generated from the sale of a real estate portfolio in northern Germany alone. Living in these apartments could potentially become an option for new residents, as the sale contributes to Vonovia's larger goal of reducing its debt and parting with around 66,000 apartments with a total value of around 13 billion euros.
Source: www.dpa.com
