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At end-2022, in an environment impacted by inflation, rising interest rates and dropping values, Covivio had adjusted its strategy, announcing (i) a €1.5bn disposal plan, (ii) a reduction in investments, with a focus on the most central areas, and (iii) the target of increasing revenues on a like-for-like basis.
Two years later, Covivio has successfully implemented this action plan:
During this period, Covivio also entered a new growth phase with two strategic hotel operations in 2024:
The end of 2024 marks a turning point for the real estate market, with inflation (+2% year-on-year in October in Europe) and interest rates falling sharply. This context has been accompanied by a gradual recovery in the investment market[1], particularly in hotels (€15bn invested in Europe in the first nine months of 2024, up +55% year-on-year) and residential (up +50% in Germany, to €5.9bn at end-September). Investment volumes in offices stabilized, at €28 billion at end-September in Europe (-2% year-on-year).
This stabilization is reflected in the preliminary feedback from appraisals of Covivio’s assets, which shows stability on a like-for-like basis for the second half of 2024. This preliminary feedback is driven by increases of around +1% in hotels and +1% in German residential. In offices, the decline in asset values slowed sharply to around -1%, thanks to outperformance in Paris and Milan.
Covivio has set itself the target of portfolio rebalancing towards 1/3 exposure to each of its asset classes (hotels, residential, offices), compared with 20% hotels, 30% residential and 50% offices at end-June 2024.
More specifically, this will involve continued strengthening of the Group’s exposure to hotels, with the aim of increasing the Group’s exposure to Southern Europe. In offices, the refocusing on city-centers will continue, with the objective of 80% of the portfolio in city-centers, compared with 69% at end-June 2024. In residential, Covivio intends to continue strengthening its position in Berlin (57% of residential assets in 2024), one of Germany’s most dynamic cities.
For many years now, Covivio has been keeping pace with the changing users’ expectations, drawing in particular on its integrated operator approach, with an ambitious service policy and customer relations, backed up by flexible and tailor-made offerings. In offices, Covivio will continue to ramp up its operated office offer, the success of which has contributed to the steady rise in the occupancy rate to 95.6% at end-September.
In hotels, the Group took a new step forward in 2024 with the development of its hotel management platform as part of its operation to gather hotels operating and property companies. Covivio has given its platform a new identity: WiZiU (link to press release). This move towards a more operational model will enable Covivio to target operations with greater potential for value creation, in particular by optimising hotel performance and carrying out capex programs to achieve a significant yield increase.
In residential, Covivio intends to meet the growing demand for operated and serviced housing. The Group is studying the development of an operatedresidential offering in two of its buildings in France (via office-to-residential conversions) and in its mixed-use Alexanderplatz project in Berlin.
Covivio is well on track to achieve its target of reducing carbon emissions by 40% between 2010 and 2030, in particular through its €235 million green capex plan by 2030 and its low-carbon policy. At end-June 2024, 96% of the portfolio have environmental certification, close to the target of 100% by end-2025, making Covivio one of the leaders in terms of alignment rate to the EU taxonomy.
Faithful to its pioneering approach to ESG (having defined its first 2030 carbon trajectory in 2018) and aware of the real estate sector’s impact on biodiversity, Covivio announces the launch of an ambitious biodiversity strategy. The company is committed to an action plan aimed at preventing the degradation of natural spaces, reducing resource consumption, and fostering urban nature development. The 21 associated objectives are detailed in the new Nature Report, published on the occasion of the Capital Markets Day (link to the report).
By combining its carbon and biodiversity commitments within a Nature policy, Covivio intends to maintain its leadership position in ESG, which has been hailed by the extra-financial rating agencies (AAA status with MSCI and 5-star status with GRESB in 2024).
Covivio is benefiting from solid operating momentum across all its businesses, with strengthened fundamentals. At end-September, revenues were up by +6.8% on a like-for-like basis, of which +8.3% in offices, +4.2% in German residential and +7.1% in hotels. The occupancy rate was 97.3%, with an average firm lease term of 6.4 years.
Covivio intends to continue extracting growth potential from its assets through three levers:
[1] Sources: RCA, BNP Real Estate, JLL
ContaCtS
Press Relations
Géraldine Lemoine
Tél : + 33 (0)1 58 97 51 00
Mail : geraldine.lemoine@covivio.fr
Louise-Marie Guinet
Tél : + 33 (0)1 43 26 73 56
Mail : covivio@wellcom.fr
Investor Relations
Vladimir Minot
Tél : + 33 (0)1 58 97 51 94
Mail : vladimir.minot@covivio.fr