After a heavy loss year, Vonovia, Germany's largest residential real estate conglomerate, reports a significant increase in profit for the first quarter. The company was able to record a surplus of 335.5 million euros, which represents a significant recovery compared to the previous year's loss of just under 2.1 billion euros. This loss was mainly due to a devaluation of the property portfolio, which remained stable with a value of approximately 83.7 billion euros at the end of the first quarter of 2024.

The heading could be translated to English as follows:

"Operationally, the first quarter showed a slight cooling: Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) fell by 3.3 percent to 607 million euros. This trend is primarily due to lower revenues from real estate services and from the sale of apartments."

The rental income, however, increased, driven by a consistently high demand for affordable living space in German metropolitan areas. The average rent per square meter rose by 3.2 percent to 7.78 euros. Vonovia predicts organic rental growth of 3.8 to 4.1 percent for the current year, which represents an increase over the previous forecast of 3.4 to 3.6 percent.

Vonovia is optimistic about the future and plans to generate an annual organic increase in value of around three billion euros from 2025. This expectation is based on a persistent housing shortage and rising demand in urban centers, regardless of valuation effects. The long-term goal is an annual rent growth of four percent.

The positive news of the increase in profits and the optimistic forecasts led to an upward movement of the Vonovia stock in XETRA trading, which temporarily rose by 5.24 percent to 27.52 euros.