Vonovia and SNI in innovative Franco-German housing tie-up
Germany's largest residential property owner, the Bochum-headquarter listed Vonovia, and the French group SNI have agreed to a partnership to “merge know-how and market expertise and identify common opportunities for growth and investment”.
At this stage the partnership is basically an agreement to pool expertise and market intelligence, enabling the two companies to learn from each other's markets and business practices. "SNI Group and Vonovia are leaders in their respective markets, both companies have developed successful and resilient business models for customers who look for attractive and affordable housing,' commented Rolf Buch, CEO of Vonovia, in a conference call.
"While our markets show differences, we both believe there is a wide variety of topics that could be explored, in order to learn from each other, identify areas of knowledge transfer and improve each other's business model further. Many industries profit from a Franco-German cooperation. We are proud to take part in that tradition in the field of affordable housing", said Buch.
Vonovia owns and manages 355,000 residential units across Germany, with a portfolio valued at nearly €31bn. SNI Group is the semi-state Caisse des Dépôts' real estate subsidiary and France's biggest social landlord with a portfolio of 348,000 units of housing throughout France, including 262,000 units of social and low-cost social housing, and 86,000 units of intermediate housing. Additionally, it builds about 10,000 new apartments every year. This gives SNI about as many apartments as Vonovia, but the company is state owned, while Vonovia is a publicly-listed company.
Buch emphasized that Vonovia's purpose was to explore the market outside of Germany – but had not yet taken a specific decision to invest there. He noted that the market for rental apartments in the Paris metropolitan area is as big as in the eight biggest German cities together.
As part of learning from its French counterpart. Buch said that collaboration in the purchase of building components could be advantageous, adding that looking beyond Germany’s borders didn’t necessarily have to end with France. “We are slowly working our way through Europe.” Interesting locations include large European cities with sizable rental markets, such as the Randstad in the Netherlands, while Sweden is also on the radar.
"Vonovia has developed the leading operational platform to provide the full range of residential real estate services in-house by way of standardized and industrialised processes," said Buch. "I believe this partnership will offer us the opportunity to learn how other leaders in similar markets operate their models. We are at a very initial stage to explore what factors determine success in other markets and gain insight."
André Yché, chairman of the management board at SNI Group, added: "This partnership between German and French leaders of housing within their respective homelands is a clear signal that both companies consider that housing, because of its influence with citizens' daily life, access to jobs capabilities and personal development, cannot be considered anymore from a specific national approach. It must be thought on the European scale; just as we Europeans proceeded with culture, scientific research and technology."