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Headquarters of the Vonovia housing company
Photo: Marcel Kusch / dpa
Germany's largest real estate group Vonovia increased its profit significantly at the beginning of 2021, also due to higher rental income.
In the first quarter of 2021, operating income increased by 14.1 percent year-on-year to around 383 million euros.
According to the company, the bottom line was a profit of 247 million euros.
After the numbers were announced, the share price slipped into the red.
Operating income is an important parameter for real estate companies.
It indicates how much money remains from ongoing business after deducting interest payments and taxes.
The operating income essentially results from the surplus plus depreciation on real estate and less capital gains.
The rental income increased in the first three months on average to 7.18 euros per square meter - that was 3.5 percent more than a year earlier.
The modernization of apartments, which lead to higher rents per square meter, made a major contribution to the increase.
Vonovia put the rent increase due to the current market development at 0.7 percent.
Vonovia is also increasingly making money with housing-related services.
The group supplies tenants with cable TV, measures energy consumption and arranges insurance.
The group also has its own large craftsmen's organization.
Vonovia owns almost 415,000 apartments, 354,000 of them in Germany.
CEO Rolf Buch is satisfied with the development of the acquired Swedish subsidiary Hembla with around 38,000 apartments.
It shows that Vonovia's business model "can also be implemented in comparable international markets," he said.
Vonovia therefore intends to continue to grow through acquisitions, especially in Scandinavian countries as well as in France, the Netherlands and Austria.
ssu / dpa-AFX
