According to Vonovia CEO Rolf Buch, the wave of bankruptcies among real estate developers on the German market has not yet subsided.

"We will see an extremely high number of bankruptcies in the coming months, perhaps even in the coming years," Buch told the International Club of Frankfurt Business Journalists on Tuesday evening. "We are already seeing this today," he added. This development is not good for the struggling real estate market, where not much new construction is taking place. After all, there will ultimately be a concentration of developers initiating new construction projects. However, Buch painted an optimistic picture for the industry leader Vonovia itself: "We are actually through." There will be no more massive devaluations - "not on this scale". "The time for price corrections is over," he concluded.

High interest rates, increased construction costs and a lack of large transactions had plunged the German real estate market into crisis. Many real estate developers got into difficulties. Vonovia had to write down its real estate portfolio by almost eleven billion euros last year, and the group posted a net loss of around 6.8 billion euros. Other real estate groups were also in the red. The question now remains as to whether the high devaluations will continue in 2024. Vonovia posted a profit in the first quarter - a revaluation of the residential portfolio was not necessary, the Bochum-based group explained at the time. Vonovia will present its half-year figures on August 1.

(Report by Tom Sims and John O'Donnell, edited by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Sabine Wollrab. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)