Vonovia

Vonovia, based in Bochum, is Germany's largest residential landlord, owning hundreds of thousands of apartments across the country and in neighbouring Sweden and Austria. Its business is collecting rent from a vast, stable tenant base, which sounds defensive, but the value of its property portfolio is highly sensitive to interest rates. When rates jumped in 2022 and 2023, property values fell, debt became a burden and Vonovia cut its dividend sharply to protect its balance sheet. It is now rebuilding the payout from a lower level as the property market stabilises. The stock has become a bet on falling interest rates and recovering real-estate values as much as on the rental income itself.