Morning, ladies and gentlemen. My colleagues, Hans-Richard and Christoph from Investor Relations and also myself welcome you to our Q3 conference call. As a quick start here, let me provide with an overview of the highlights and afterwards, let's have a closer look on the key results of this period. Hans-Richard will continue and give you further details concerning our operational business, as well as the financial part. At the end of our call, I will then close with some comments concerning our ESG activities, as well as our updated outlook. Okay, let's start with the highlights. All in all, I think we have been able to generate very satisfying Q3 results.
Meanwhile, on the back of, again, very high rent collection rates, rental income came down by 3.5% compared to last year's period. This was heavily influenced by our strategic disposal program. At the same time, you know, considering the overall market situation, our letting results remain strong with a total of 122,000 sq m during the first nine months. Finally, our operating business led to an FFO on the level of the previous year. The portfolio rotation remains well underway with a total acquisition volume of EUR 79.5 million up to Q3. Meanwhile, most of our non-strategic high street assets have been sold.
Compared to the end of last year, the KPIs of our financial profile have further improved. EPRA NAV is slightly up. Same applies to the REIT equity ratio, with LTV came down by approximately 100 basis points. In the end, as I've mentioned before, we have updated our outlook for this business year, and I will be coming back to that at the end of our presentation. After this short summary, I will now like to give you an overview regarding our major KPIs. Let me start with some P&L numbers and some key KPIs. Rental income, as mentioned before, year-on-year down by 3.5%. A major jump of profit during the period substantially driven by gains from our sales activities.
FFO per share slightly down, taking into account the effect of our two scrip dividend offers this year in 2020 and 2021 during the period compared. With that, I would continue to the next page concerning the portfolio. Some key metrics over here, like for like. Year to date, rental income like for like up by 2.3%, mainly influenced by adjustments of CPI-linked rental contracts. Vacancy, despite a slight increase, remains on a very low level. The WAULT roughly on previous year level. With that, let's go on to the next page. Short overview concerning our investments throughout the year. Yeah, our investments during the first quarters here at a glance.
Despite continuously competitive market environment, we have been able to acquire, as we think, a good mixture of attractive office and retail properties. This includes two assets following our manage-to-core approach, which from the start get a lot of additional attention from our asset management and technical team. The most recent acquisition for our core portfolio represents a modern DIY store, which was erected in 2018 in Freiburg and is run by one of our key tenants, this is OBI. Together with the newly constructed office in Münster and the asset in Stuttgart, these investments here enlarge our already existing presence in very promising local markets, which enables an efficient operational management for these assets.
Looking at the disposals, when it comes to portfolio rotation, in 2021, I think it's fair to say that next to our new assets, we also have been quite active on the disposal side here. Since the implementation of our enhanced strategy last year, we have sold more than 10% of our total assets. This, including almost EUR 140 million of non-strategic high street properties. With reference to this part of our portfolio and except for one asset, which we take into the manage-to-core basket. Most of our homework has been done meanwhile.
In addition to various advantages on the operational side, we think that following these disposals, our adjusted portfolio has increased visibility as well, further improves our risk-return profile. With this short overview, let me hand over to Hans Richard Schmitz.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Niclas. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and also from me a warm welcome to today's conference call. Let us now have a closer look at the operating and financial figures for the first nine months of 2021. First, I would like to give you a brief overview of the company's tenant base. Compared to the first half of this year, there are only minor changes in our tenant structure. The food retailers, EDEKA, Kaufland, and REWE are still leading our top ten list. With the handover of former Real spaces in our property in Celle, the share of Kaufland increased around 1 percentage point to 6.9%. Consequently, Real dropped to fifth place of our list. The former Real market in the Gießen property has also been handed over to Kaufland in October.
Obviously, this is not reflected in the figures shown on this slide, but the trends will have an impact on the year-end tenant structure. Irrespective of the changes, food retailers currently still account for 1/3 of the company's total rental income. As a result of the disposal of numerous non-strategic assets, the share of rents from the fashion sector was reduced significantly and currently accounts for 7.1%, a decrease of 75% year-on-year. Our office tenants, including various public authorities, governmental and educational institutions, as well as renowned companies, for instance, from the IT communication or insurance sector, currently generate around 40% of total rental income. The solid and well-balanced tenant structure creates the basis for our ongoing stable and predictable cash inflows. A few remarks on the current letting situation.
Despite the consistently difficult situation on the letting markets and the significantly lower take-up, we were able to extend leases with numerous existing tenants and signed various new lease agreements since the beginning of the year. In June, we achieved our most important letting success and signed long-term follow-on leases for space originally let to the food retailer, real, at our retail locations in Mannheim, Celle, and Gießen. As mentioned before, the rental spaces in the Celle and Gießen property have already been handed over to the new anchor tenant, Kaufland. The still existing real market in our largest retail property in Mannheim is due to be transferred to the new tenant, Globus, by mid next year. Thanks to the successful asset management activities, the nine-month letting result accounts for roughly 122,000 sq m.
The total portfolio WAULT, as well as the occupancy rate according to EPRA, remains at consistently high levels at 6.1 years and 98.2%, respectively. The remaining leases outstanding for renewal in the further course of the year only correspond to 1.4% of our total annual rents, and currently, we are confident to extend the majority of the expiries within the next weeks. For the following years, our lease expiry schedule still shows that the share of contracts expiring is well-balanced. Larger letting tasks only need to be completed from 2023 onwards. After the view on our recent asset management activities, a brief review of the current impact of COVID-19.
Despite the long-lasting lockdown phase in the first half of this year and the associated impact on individual Hamburg tenants, incoming rent payments continued to see surprisingly good performance in the last few months. Following the resumption of the lockdown at the end of 2020, the rent collection rates fell only slightly at the beginning of the year, but continued to increase over the following months, resulting in an average of 97.4% in the lockdown months from January to May 2021. As a result of the gradual removal of the far-reaching restrictions, the rent payment ratio rose immediately and came in at around 95% in June and July. In Q3, the rent collection rate amounted to 99.3% on average and was therefore almost back at pre-COVID level.
Regarding the outstanding rent payments, we are continuing our cooperative dialogue with tenants affected by the lockdown and are currently finding more and more mutual and fair agreements as we did in connection with the first lockdown in 2020. Let us now take a closer look at the nine-month financial figures. With a total of EUR 63.9 million, we saw 3.5% reduction in income from rents and leases compared to last year, which is mainly due to the disposal of numerous non-strategic assets as well as pandemic related risk provisioning. The decline was partly offset by rental income generated with the properties acquired during the last twelve months. Total maintenance expenses were lower than originally expected and came in at previous year's level at around EUR 3.5 million.
This is essentially related to the postponement of several maintenance measures, especially in connection with remodeling and modernization work at the former real locations in Celle in Gießen, which will likely be carried out at the beginning of next year. Net rental income amounted to EUR 57.4 million, a slight decrease of 3.9%. Administrative expenses increased by around EUR 0.5 million, year- on- year, mainly due to higher expenses for cash deposits. The significant rise in other operating income is a result of a EUR 2.2 million compensation payment received from real in connection with the early termination of the lease agreements. Other operating expenses were around 11% below the level of 2020, as there were significantly lower pandemic-related impairments of receivables due to write-downs in granted rent reductions.
As a result of income and expenses, the nine-month FFO came in at previous year's level at an amount EUR 42.3 million. In consideration of the increased number of shares, which is a result of the scrip dividend offers in Q4 2020 and Q2 2021, this corresponds to a FFO per share of EUR 0.52. Now, let me continue with a short look at our NAV and NTA development. As a consequence of the portfolio disposals in the course of the year, the NAV calculation shows a slight decrease in long-term assets. The increase in short-term assets mainly relates to liquidity enhancements associated with the divestments. Non-current liabilities and provisions increased due to additional loans taken out in connection with the newly acquired assets.
Overall, NAV saw an increase of 1.4% as against the end of 2020. NAV per share at the end of September came to EUR 11.21. As in previous reporting periods, there is no material difference between NAV and NTA, as Hamborner's intangible assets only amount to around EUR 0.5 million. Let me finish with a few comments on our financial situation, which is still very comfortable. The REIT equity ratio amounts to 58.6%, and therefore rose more than 4 percentage points compared to year-end 2020. We are still well in excess of the 45% ratio required under the German REIT law. The LTV decreased in the course of the year by 100 basis points and amounted to 43.5% as of end of September.
With 8.8, our current interest coverage ratio is still on a very comfortable level. The average financing costs are consistently low at 1.7%, with an average remaining term of loans of five years. We have already concluded all follow-up financing for 2021 at favorable terms of 1% and are currently in negotiations on re-refinancing our liabilities expiring in 2022, which to a substantial part are due by the end of next year. We expect the refinancing contract to be signed in the first quarter of 2022. So far from my side, thank you for listening, and let me now hand back to Niclas for a few remarks on our ESG performance in the short outlook.
Yes, Hans, thank you very much. You already mentioned it, let me continue with some comments on our ESG activities here. What you see here is a short overview of our most recent ESG activities. As part of our revised strategy here, we defined four key action areas, which you'll find on the next page, and for which we expect to be able to, as we think, to generate the largest positive contribution in the interest of our stakeholder and the overall society. Substantial part of our environmental and portfolio-related work concentrates on, you know, topics around the identification, collection, as well as the systematic analysis of all relevant data.
Surely the recent results from our successful carbon footprint and climate neutrality project for our headquarters will be helpful, as we can use the findings here for further portfolio-related tasks. Some additional results of our extensive efforts can be seen on the lower part of this page. Nevertheless, as we are all aware, not least concerning environmental and climate measures, we talk about a very complex field of topics, which require not only a strong commitment, but in the end, also endurance. Yeah. On the next page, let's continue here with two other points. Yeah, with reference to the social and governance part.
The next page here shows a number of implemented or running measures in order to further improve our positioning in these areas. Based on the existing organizational setup and the overall situation of our company, as well as to a certain extent supported by the current status of key social KPIs, which you find on this page, on the lower part here. We feel optimistic to be able to achieve our aspirational targets here for this point. With that, let me go on with the updated outlook. I would like to conclude the presentation here as usual with an update here for the current business year.
With reference to the expected rental income, we stay at our range of EUR 83-85 million. Concerning FFO, we expect a slightly better result and adjusted our forecast from a range of EUR 48-50 million to now EUR 52-53 million. The forecast adjustment is especially due to a time shift and the elimination of expenses originally expected for the current financial year. Accordingly, we also assume a slight NAV increase compared to the end of 2020. With that, thank you very much for your attention for now and looking forward to take potential questions on your part.
Our first question today comes from Kai Klose, Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. I've got two questions, if I may. The first one is on page three of the presentation, or that's on page 10 to be precise. We had a 3.5% decrease in income from rent due to the sale of assets. Could you indicate what was the change on a like-for-like basis? The second question would be on page eight regarding the contract extensions. Two questions here. Could you indicate how much was coming on a premature basis from tenants where you have granted some rent relief? What was the prevailing rental levels and the previous value compared to the extensions, new extensions? Thank you.
Kai, do you hear me?
Yes. Very clear.
Okay. The answer to your first question, the like-for-like rental development was a slight increase of 0.1%, a minor change.
Thank you.
The second question, we hadn't understand it so right because we had some difficulty with the line. Please, can you repeat?
Yes. I was asking on page eight regarding the 70,000 parameters of contract extensions. Could you indicate how the new rental levels compare to the previous expiring ones and the value for the extensions compared to the previous values of the leases?
Kai, it's a little bit less because of the impact of the re-letting of the Real spaces. This in two cases a little bit less than what we had received from Real in the former time.
Thank you. The very last question from my side, we had a slight increase in the cost ratio due to the smaller portfolio size. Do you indicate or do you intend to keep the platform as it is in order to be prepared for a larger portfolio, or you see some potential for cost savings to improve the efficiency based on the current portfolio, based on the portfolio sizes?
The main reason for this increase is the money what we have to pay to the banks for our liquidity. This destroy a little bit here our cost ratio, and that's the main point. Additional to this, a minor point, I think it was nearly EUR 12,000, the cost of the AGM what we had in the last year and the last quarter.
Understood. Thanks so much.
Yeah. Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question today comes from Philipp Kaiser, Baader Bank. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for the presentation and for taking my question. Just a follow-up question on the re-letting results. Could you elaborate a bit on the split on the different sectors between retail and office or kind of get a feeling or your view regarding the lettings and the office sector? Is there still a lot of caution from the tenants regarding new lettings? Could you just elaborate on that? That would be my first question.
Yeah. At first, in the third quarter, the main letting, reletting result was coming from the real space. That's very clear, I think.
Mm-hmm.
If you have a look to the rent levels, this is very difficult here.
Just with reference to the last question, any additional questions?
Yeah, regarding the expected maintenance for the real buildings. You mentioned in the half-year report that you expect maintenance for this year between EUR 1.6 million and EUR 2.9 million. Now they might seem, at least the majority will postpone to 2022. Could you elaborate a bit on how much of this we can expect this year and how much next year from the expected maintenance for the two real assets?
Yeah, we expect that around EUR 1.5 million-EUR 2 million will be postponed to 2022.
Okay, thanks. No further questions on my side.
Okay. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. It appears that we currently have no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to your host for any additional or closing remarks.
Yes. Hi, thank you very much. Sorry again for the technical interruptions and problems. Thanks for your attention and if you have any other further questions which might not have been answered, or we didn't have a chance to place them, please give a call to Christoph, and he's happy to answer your questions. Thank you very much for now and have a good week then.
Yeah. Thank you very much from my side too.