State of Berlin takes over 4,500 apartments from Vonovia

Newsletter Posts / Berlin - News

As the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) announced on April 24, the municipal housing company Howoge is taking over 4,500 apartments from the Bochum-based real estate group Vonovia in the district of Lichtenberg. The deal also includes 6.9 hectares of building land in the Berlin-Buch and Berlin-Lichtenberg districts, which Howoge is taking control of together with Berlinovo, another state-owned housing company. According to Handelsblatt, the EUR 700 million transaction is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. Ulrich Schiller, Managing Director of Howoge, has evaluated the location, construction, and condition of the newly acquired properties as being on par with Howoge’s existing municipal portfolio. According to Schiller, the average rent of EUR 7.04/sqm also aligns “perfectly with municipal housing.” The EUR 700 million will be a combination of equity and loan capital. Three years ago, Berlin’s three municipal housing companies Berlinovo, Degewo, and Howoge took over almost 15,000 apartments and 450 commercial units from Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, prior to the two companies’ merger, at a price of EUR 2.46 billion. In 2019, around 2,100 units were also acquired by Degewo from Deutsche Wohnen for EUR 358 million and almost 5,600 apartments by Gewobag from Ado Properties for EUR 920 million. The aim of these purchases is to bring the Berlin rental market back under municipal control. According to official figures, more than a fifth of Berlin’s approximately 1.7 million rental apartments are currently in public ownership.

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