Opportunities Arising from the Operating Business

Vonovia manages its housing portfolios throughout Germany using standardized systems and processes. Our management platform has been improved as part of a step-by-step process in recent years and is now highly efficient: The vacancy rate is very low. Property management costs per residential unit have been reduced considerably over the years. Customer satisfaction has risen significantly over the same period. Together with the range of housing-related services and active neighborhood management, we offer our customers a service package that is extremely competitive on the housing market.

We have our own craftsman’s organization (VTS), which provides repair, maintenance and servicing for some of our residential properties. We purchase additional craftsman’s services. We are aiming to continually increase the proportion of building and apartment optimizing services we provide ourselves via our craftsmen’s organization as well as new building construction over the coming years. Due to the shortage of workers with the desired skills and the availability of corresponding capacities, we also intend to extend the scope of these services to cover all kinds of technical work and thus bring added value from these services to Vonovia. This is being supported by corresponding HR management concepts.

This also includes the operationalization and rapid implementation of our PV and tenant electricity capacities, for which we are establishing the corresponding staff resources to ensure that the required expertise is available. The company’s own tenant electricity and heat pump tariffs and the considerable roof areas available could open up operational earnings opportunities for the company and make a relevant contribution to the energy and climate transition.

The Value-add Business offers our customers services that are closely related to the rental business. Opportunities associated with additional earnings potential could also arise here at all stages in the value chain – be it through the company’s development of its own innovative services or through the acquisition of start-ups or other companies. In the Value-add Business, promising opportunities could arise both from entry into the B2B business and from moves to expand existing business models to include customer groups outside of Vonovia.

In tandem with our moves to expand our existing housing-related services (also by way of potential third-party business), we believe that digitalization offers the potential to further increase customer loyalty to our business model, e.g., through customer loyalty programs, communication platforms or networking. 

Digitalization opens up considerable development opportunities for the real estate industry and, as a result, also for Vonovia – in terms of both technology and process optimization. We are still making systematic investments in testing and expanding new technologies. Two of the areas we are focusing on are articifical intelligence and robotics.

We expect opportunities to arise from the systematic roll-out of concepts such as predictive maintenance, process automation, building information modeling (digital modeling of real estate projects), home automation (setting up smart information systems and interfaces at the level of the customer) and a closer digital connection to the customer. One key component for the implementation of our digital strategy is the digital twin. In the future, it will mirror each of our buildings with all its various systems, enabling optimum management.

Predictive maintenance, for example, could allow potential damage to elevators or heating units to be recognized and prevented in a timely manner in the future. Smart home systems allow tenants to consciously manage their energy costs. Digital communication platforms have the potential to improve dialog with tenants, but also to support loyalty to the company and links within the neighborhood. These opportunities for the company’s operating business resulting from digitalization should also have an impact on and through customer satisfaction. Targeted acquisitions and collaboration initiatives with suitable start-ups at all stages in the value chain to enable the further implementation of digital solutions within Vonovia’s processes, but also at the various interfaces, could open up further earnings and expertise potential for the company.

One factor that Vonovia cannot control itself, but which is important for successful and, most importantly, efficient project implementation, is the digitalization of public administration. The streamlining of administrative processes could accelerate, and have a positive impact on, Vonovia’s development and new construction business by allowing building permits to be approved faster.