STABILITY, A LONG-TERM APPROACH AND CONTINUED SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The outlook for the Swedish economy has been affected by the worsened security situation in Europe, high inflation, rising interest rates and high energy costs. Volito Fastigheter rests on a stable ownership structure and a strong portfolio and has purposefully continued working on long-term and sustainable property development. The year brought reduced market values, but also strong property leasing, strategic recruitment, continued property refinement and new steps in the area of sustainability.

The business climate presents challenges in the form of increased costs relating to operation and maintenance, construction, interest rates and energy. Our business is built on a strong and secure ownership structure as well as an attractive, diversified and long-term financed portfolio with low risk. We see continuing good demand for housing and office premises and, with maintained high growth goals, continued our initiatives in sustainable property development. We stand ready to continue our expansion, both under our own management and in collaboration with other actors. Our strategy remains in place, we focus on central office and shop premises and residential properties in Malmö with good access to public transport.

Strong leasing activity

After the pandemic, companies are expressing a longing back to inspirational office environments with creative design, modern functions and proximity to colleagues. We offer good possibilities for special adaptations, something that is crucial when our customers make decisions, and several new lease agreements were signed during the year. Among the customers moving in are Transdev and Coffee Stain.

At The Point in Hyllie, which we co-own with Peab, the occupancy rate has reached 97% and continues to progress strongly. New tenants in 2022 included Sony and Sandvik. The tenants appreciate not only the location and the international environment with its proximity to the City Tunnel, Copenhagen Airport and Copenhagen, but also the exciting workplace and meeting venue with restaurant and conference services that The Point and the adjacent Quality Hotel View jointly offer.

Financial results

We can be gratified by the continued positive growth in rental revenue. However, interest rates were considerably higher than in the previous year while energy costs increased. The profit after financial income and expense for 2022 amounted to SEK 61.8 million. The market value of Volito’s investment properties decreased by SEK 81.0 million and together with the year’s investments of SEK 16.7 million this amounted to an unrealised change in value of SEK -97.7 million.

Sustainable property development

Within Volito Fastigheter there is a deep-rooted long-term approach and a fondness for buildings that have a history. Through careful management and well-thought-out modernisations, preferably with an element of reuse, we preserve our buildings’ original character. Reuse reduces our climate impact and is also much in demand, as renovations with reused material give a unique feeling to buildings and premises. The property sector is becoming increasingly interested in reuse but needs to be better at finding new contexts for what is being preserved. We would like to contribute to more creative collaborations between property owners, architects, interior designers and tenants.

We continued our long-term maintenance work according to plan for our portfolio. We have also carried out further energy-saving measures, such as the installation of presencecontrolled LED lighting in four of our garages, which has reduced energy consumption by 110 000 kWh per year.

Consideration for people and the climate

During the year, we identified the focus areas for our sustainability work and the global goals that we have the greatest potential to affect within the framework of our business. This concerns, among other things, our impact on the climate including our carbon dioxide emissions, careful management of our buildings from different periods, boosting biodiversity, and consideration for people.

We continued to strengthen our organisation during the year with several skilled staff members, in order to further ensure that our work on existing and new properties is conducted with long-term consideration for people and the climate. We look forward to the planning work for our development properties in Nyhamnen, and we see it as self-evident to be involved in creating a more sustainable Malmö. We have also joined the LFM30 network – Local Road Map Malmö 2030 – which is one of Sweden’s largest and most ambitious sustainability initiatives. Within the framework of LFM30, we have started work on a climate action plan, committed ourselves to efforts to minimise the climate footprint of our entire value chain within both the existing portfolio and forthcoming project development, with the aim to be net zero climate neutral by 2030, and will follow LFM30’s systematic target follow-ups.

I would like to extend my thanks to our customers and business partners, and to our staff. Despite uncertain times, we have managed the year’s challenges with commitment and inventiveness. It feels very inspiring to continue our journey with you.