Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Kojamo's Full-Year Results News Conference. My name is Maija Hongas, and I'm Manager of Investor Relations here at Kojamo. Today's presenters will be Jani Nieminen, CEO, and Erik Hjelt, CFO. After the presentation, we have some time for questions, and first we will be taking the questions from the conference call line, and after that from the chat. Thanks for joining us today, and let's get started. Please, Jani.
Good morning, everyone. Nice to be here. The sun is shining here in Finland today. The amount of light is increasing on a daily basis. Today, I'm providing color on our full-year report, and I would say compared to many countries, of course, COVID-19 impact has been limited here in Finland compared to many countries, but on the other hand, of course, it has had an impact in the housing market as well. We have been able to run all our operations in quite a normal manner, and we've been able to proceed with our strategy, strengthening our new development pipeline, publishing our digital roadmap, publishing our sustainability program.
According to the estimates, urbanization will continue after sufficient vaccination coverage will be achieved here in Finland, so I think we are proceeding with our strategy, providing profitable growth as planned, and there will be a long-term demand for new homes here in Finland. To provide some color on the operating environment, of course, a big megatrend creating long-term demand for new homes is urbanization, which has been slower throughout the pandemic, but on the other hand, according to all the estimates, after the pandemic is over, urbanization will continue here in Finland, creating demand in the biggest cities, and still the same estimate that roughly 35,000 apartments should be completed on an annual basis in the biggest cities. Of course, still, Helsinki metropolitan area will be the most growing part of Finland.
It seems that, according to the latest figures, the number of started apartments last year decreased less than expected, and I would say that after summer, the demand for owner-occupied apartments was recovering, and it seems that financing has been a bit better available for construction companies, so they have been able to recover from the drop providing owner-occupied homes. The supply-demand balance in the rental apartment market last year was different. As we've been providing information, of course, we knew that a lot of apartments were completed last year.
On the other hand, as COVID-19 kicked in, many apartments, which were used for short-term leasing, were converted into long-term rental apartments, and at the same time, for example, a lot of students started remote studies, went back to their parents' homes, went back to their home countries, so I would say there was new supply coming to the market, but a bigger impact because of lack of demand or change in the demand as students were moving out. As I said, urbanization will continue, and we see that this impact has been temporary. Latest figures are not available concerning the estimates of rental increases, but we do believe that they will keep on the same level, so roughly a bit more than 1% a year in the market, and this year the latest estimate is that roughly 31,000 apartments will be started in the construction here in Finland.
Of that, roughly 11,000 market-based apartment buildings, the decrease will be roughly 5,000 apartments compared to last year. Keeping in mind the big trends behind the demand, urbanization, development of household sizes, so the number of small households, one- and two-person households will be increasing still, and there is still the change in people's values, especially with the millennials, that they tend to value the freedom of rental apartments and not that anxious to take the housing loan, even though we have seen that the housing trade has been a bit more active, and the media provides information that a lot of homebuyers are available, but on the other hand, we see that not that many homes are for sale.
What we have been seeing all the time is that the number of households living in rental apartments has been and is still increasing in all the big cities, and for example, in Helsinki, Turku, and Tampere, actually more households today live in rental apartments than in owner-occupied homes. Most of our housing assets are located here in the Helsinki region, roughly 74%. On the other hand, if we combine Helsinki, Turku, and Tampere regions, it's roughly 88% of our assets located in the three biggest growth centers in Finland. On the other hand, as I said, last year has been a bit more challenging renting apartments in the market. On the other hand, we've been able to keep the occupancy rate on a good level despite the pandemic. We've been able to still improve our processes and make new tenant agreements on a fairly good level.
On the other hand, of course, we have seen the impact of COVID-19 hitting the tenant turnover. Students leaving homes back to their parents, single-parent families moving out, so that has had an impact towards the occupancy. To provide some color on numbers, I would say last year roughly 3,000 new agreements done by clients under 25 years. At the same time, a bit more than 2,000 rental agreements terminated by tenants under 25 years. So there have been a lot of turnover with the youngest clients last year. To wrap up the biggest numbers and the most important KPIs, we did have a solid year last year providing profitable growth. Total revenue increased 2.3%, net rental income 4.2% growth, and funds from operations grew by 7.7%.
To provide a bit more color on total revenue growth, of course, it's a combination of completed apartments during 2019 and 2020 and the rent increases done last year. On the other hand, we've been able to increase the net rental income. There are a couple of aspects. On the other hand, we did have a so-called mild weather last year here in Finland, so a bit less heating costs, and on the other hand, less need to remove the snow. On the other hand, people did spend a lot more time in their homes, so we saw an increase in water consumption and in cleaning of the properties. Gross investments last year: EUR 371 million. Of course, there the most important part was new development projects close to EUR 370 million.
On the other hand, an important figure, of course, profit excluding changes in value grew by 4.2%, EUR 165 million, and then we had a net gain in fair values a bit more than EUR 225 million, a good solid number last year. Of course, we have to keep in mind that during the comparison year, we did adopt a yield-based valuation methodology, and that year it had a positive impact of roughly EUR 800 million. For us, it's important that we are able to grow by using multiple sources. To provide some color on the new development pipeline, we started last year the construction of more than 1,800 apartments. We did make several important agreements with construction companies. To pick a couple of those, an agreement done with SRV during March provides 676 apartments, and another agreement with construction company Lehto in June provides close to 400 apartments.
We have been able to still increase the number of apartments under construction, now more than 2,600 apartments, all located in the Helsinki region. A really strong pipeline providing growth where Finland is growing, so the population is growing. We still have co-operation agreements providing roughly 1,000 apartments, and in addition to that, the so-called Metropolia properties case, the zoning is proceeding. The first two properties, the zoning was completed at the end of last year, and of course, our aim is that the construction of first properties or buildings will be started during this year. Our state of mind is such that the one building prior used to be the main building for University of Technology will be sold as a hotel project.
The strong pipeline here in the Helsinki region is matching all the most important parameters when we consider our investments, so the location, micro-location, the sizes of the apartments, services available near the buildings, and of course, the net rental yield being 4% or above 4%, and the additional development gains received from those projects. The strong pipeline will provide also an increasing number of completed apartments starting this year, as visible here on page 11, close to 1,300 apartments will be completed this year, more than 1,600 apartments in 2022, and already we know a pipeline to be completed close to 700 apartments in the year 2023. Still, we are working every day in order to find new projects.
For us, it's always been important that we are able to provide added value for our customers, services for new customers entering the Lumo world, as well as the services during the tenancy period. To provide some new color, of course, for example, My Lumo services has been accepted and used on a fairly good level by our tenants. 75% of our tenants are using My Lumo application on a regular basis, more than 1,300 daily users. We've been providing a couple of new services like electricity tendering, move-in installation services, and then, for example, installation of washing machines and cleaning services for moving out. We've been also piloting direct payments from customers as they use the services, so the first cash flow has been entering last year. This year, of course, our aim is to increase the amount of services and create services that will generate cash flows as well.
On the right-hand side, an increasing number of agreements done online, of course, today more than 21,000 apartments rented from Lumo web store. On the other hand, I guess during this period of time, the most important piece of news is that we've been able to increase the number of new tenant agreements last year compared to the comparison year. Sustainability has always been an important factor for us. We argue that it's a part of our company DNA. We published our sustainability program in the beginning of December. Our key commitments are United Nations sustainability development goals, as well as carbon-neutral energy in our properties by 2030. In a couple of weeks, we'll be launching our sustainability report as part of the annual report.
We've been providing a lot of new information in the Board of Directors report and financial statements, so I think we have reached now a better level providing information concerning sustainability. Now I would ask Erik to provide some deeper color on the numbers.
Thank you, Jani Nieminen, and good morning everybody from my side as well. We were able to provide a solid set of numbers, and total revenue growth was EUR 8.6 million, and like-for-like rental growth contributed 1.2%, and there we have rent increases and water charges, positive figure 2.1%, and the occupancy rate negative figure 0.9%. The remaining part of the total revenue, of course, was contributed by the net of completed apartments last year and at the end of 2019, as well as acquired and disposed apartments.
Profit before taxes without changing fair value or investment properties grew to EUR 6.7 million, and the profit on fair value and investment properties was EUR 225.8 million, and roughly half of that is due to the increase in cash flows, and a little less than 40% is coming through because of the ending restrictions, and a little more than 10% was from the development gains from the development projects completed last year. We kept yield requirements at the end of last year unchanged as anticipated. Net rental income grew EUR 10.3 million, biggest contributor there, of course, total revenue grew EUR 8.6 million. Maintenance cost was EUR 0.6 million less than in the corresponding period.
There were a couple of items moving different directions, so on the positive side, mild winter heating EUR 2.4 million less than in the corresponding period, and then we transported less snow last year, so that was EUR 1 million less than in the corresponding period. On the opposite direction, moved water expenses was higher EUR 0.9 million, cleaning higher EUR 1.2 million, and waste EUR 0.7 million, and these are mainly because of the COVID-19, so people spent more time at home, so that's why this part of all the maintenance expenses was elevated last year. Repairs was EUR 1.1 million less than in corresponding periods, and net rental income marching 67.1%, and that was higher than in corresponding period where we had 65.9%. FFO growth was EUR 10.8 million, net rental income contributed EUR 10.3 million, SG expenses was EUR 0.3 million less than in the corresponding period.
There was slight impact because of the COVID-19. Obviously, we spent less time at the office, so there were some savings related to that. Final sale cost was up EUR 4.5 million due to the fact that the loan portfolio is much bigger than in the corresponding periods, and cash taxes was less EUR 3 million due to the fact that in the corresponding period there was disposal of assets, and that led to paid cash taxes. Financial occupancy rate maintained in a good level as Jani already discussed, and gross investments EUR 371.2 million, EUR 331.3 million on development investments, acquisitions EUR 12.8 million, and modernization investments EUR 27.1 million. Modernization investments and repairs put together EUR 62.9 million, EUR 1.1 million savings what comes to repairs, and EUR 3.6 million what comes to modernization investments.
Going forward, we still expect the modernization investment and repairs put together to be between EUR 60 million and EUR 70 million per year. Value of investment properties growth was almost 10%. The biggest contributors there, of course, the developments as well as the profit on changing fair value of investment properties. At the end of last year, we still had 2,275 apartments where there are restrictions regarding the valuation, and those restrictions will gradually end by the end of 2024, and there will be an uplift in values between EUR 150 million and EUR 170 million, and those uplifts will be backward. Our development pipeline and our land bank, if you like, from your point of view, so on the left-hand side we have apartments under construction, EUR 370 million already invested, and EUR 262.9 million to be invested in order to complete those ongoing developments.
Mid-column EUR 214 million to the cost of these apartments, almost 1,000 apartments, and on the right-hand side column there's our land bank, if you like, so pure land Metropolia cases as well as those properties where the idea is to demolish existing building and then to build a new one. We estimate that the total amount of investments in developments this year is going to be somewhere between EUR 370 million and EUR 420 million, and all these ongoing developments as well as the land bank located in the Helsinki region. Equity ratio and loan- to- value, strong figures there as well. We have quite sizable buffer against our target levels to have an equity ratio above 40% and loan- to- value to be below 50%, so we have there leeway to grow the company further. Equity per share growth there as well as EPRA NAV.
The EPRA NAV going forward, we are going to report NRV in our financials , so all these three new EPRA NAV metrics, but we think that this NRV illustrates best Kojamo's business, and Kojamo will use this one as the primary indicator of net asset going forward. We have quite strong financial key figures, almost EUR 3 billion loan portfolio, 57% of that from the bond market, average interest rate included in cost of derivatives 1.8%, and the average loan maturity and average fixed interest rate period of four and a half years. The equity ratio is quite high, 91% at the end of last year, and we have credit lines committed unused EUR 300 million, and cash and cash equivalents and financial assets more than EUR 300 million, and no major maturing loans in a couple of coming years. Strategic KPIs, strong figures there as well.
Total revenue already discussed, annual investments on the high end of our strategic target range, close to EUR 400 million, FFO against total revenue close to 40%, loan to value equity ratio on the strong side as well as a good NPS figure 36. The outlook for this year, we estimate that top line growth is going to be between 3% and 5% year- on- year, and that is coming through the like-for-like rental growth as well as number of apartments to be completed this year. This estimate does not include any potential acquisitions. We are still actively looking for acquisitions to acquire apartments, but it's not included in these estimates. Of course, we are not doctors, but this outlook is based on the assumption that the sufficient vaccination coverage will be achieved in summer, and migration will gradually recover to pre-pandemic levels thereafter.
Still, the fact is, of course, that the vaccination is not going to happen overnight, so the development of like-for-like rental income most likely is going to be moderate during the first half of this year because of the COVID-19. We estimate that the FFO this year is going to be between EUR 150 million and EUR 163 million, and there are a couple of assumptions in the midpoint of that range. First of all, the midpoint of that range is based on the assumption that the weather is going to be normal this year, that the repair project is going to proceed as planned, the SGA expenses are going to be in the ballpark on the same level as last year, and no disposal, meaning no additional taxes to be paid, and then the financing of the ongoing developments, EUR 374 million and EUR 420 million this year.
These are the assumptions of the midpoint of this FFO range. The board proposal for dividend, EUR 0.37 per share, and of course that finally will be decided by the AGM later. Now back to Jani.
Thank you, Erik. I think as to summarize, we did have a solid year 2020. We created sustainable growth. We were able to increase total revenue, net rental income, and FFO. For us, it's important that we are able to grow profitable using multiple sources, so creating new development projects where we succeeded last year, exceptionally good. Of course, we are able to convert buildings into apartments. The Metropolia case will be coming, and we are able to make acquisitions when we find suitable portfolios according to our parameters. We do have a solid and strong foundation for our future growth.
We do see that in the short term, the operating environment is still challenging, but on the other hand, we expect the urbanization to continue even stronger after COVID-19 pandemic, and of course, it's dependent on sufficient vaccination coverage. With these words, I think we are ready to pass it to Maija. Thank you.
Thank you, Jani and Erik. We are now ready for the questions, and we'll start with the conference call line, so please operator, we're ready.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. Our first question comes from the line of Anssi Kivinniemi from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hi guys, it's Anssi from SEB. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of them. First one is related to rental trends. What kind of changes are you seeing in new contracts, tenant turnover, and in customer retention when we got closer to the end of the year? Also, what kind of trends do you see in these lines when we enter into 2021? That's the first one.
Yeah, if I pick that one, thank you Anssi for the question. As I provided color, we saw already in March that many students terminated the rental agreements, and actually that kept on going throughout the year, so we saw that many younger clients did rent the apartment, but a couple of months later terminated the rental agreement. I guess one of the reasons behind there was that the decision that all the universities started only remote studies in the autumn, and some of the students did hope that they would be able to do the studies in a normal manner and meet all the new friends.
Towards the later part of the year, we saw a small increase with tenant agreements terminated by single-parent families. When we look at what's been happening with our clients changing from one Lumo apartment to another Lumo apartment, a bigger portion of clients have been actually moving towards a slightly more expensive apartment. Typically, it seems that they are still moving inside the same city between the same age class of buildings, in many cases actually from a similar size apartment to a similar size apartment. Nothing radical, but the tenant turnover has been high as we provided color.
Okay, thanks. The next one is on fair value changes, and especially in Q4. I mean, market trends probably contributed to the fair value gain, but how much of the total figure came from restrictions ending?
Would you take that, Erik?
During Q4, the uplift in value that came through because of any restriction was approximately EUR 35 million, three five million euros.
Could you also split the rest? Where did the kind of fair value gains come from?
In Q4, a little less than EUR 9 million was the development gain, and almost EUR 120 million was increased cash flows.
Okay, that is clear.
The figure, of course, in that calculation was modernization investments that was EUR 7 million during Q4.
Okay, thanks. On supply-demand balance when we enter into 2021, I understand that the picture is quite blurry still, but how do you see 2021 compared to 2020 in terms of market balance?
We expect that a bit less new apartments will be completed to the market than last year, but I would say that by far a bigger question is when we reach the sufficient level with vaccination and the urbanization will continue in the normal level and students will come back to do the studies in a normal manner. I think the demand side is there, it's ready to move towards the bigger cities, and that will have by far a bigger impact.
Okay, you have had a lot of apartments basically come into the market during the coronavirus period. Has the COVID impacted the new apartment rent level? What are your strategies on that side?
The projects we completed last year, actually the renting did succeed very nicely as we provided color during the Investors' Day. I think one change there has been due to COVID-19 that most of the new tenants have moved in from the same city or close to this new development project, so less people coming from other cities.
Okay, thanks. The last, let's say, housekeeping question is on Q1. The costs and winter conditions, they supported the result in 2020. Will there be a setback in Q1 as the weather is how it is? What's the magnitude of the potential cost increase?
This morning when I drove to the office, we had here minus 20 degrees Celsius, so it's rather cold. So it's too early to estimate what is going to be the impact and what is going to be the impact for the whole year, but as we speak, it's rather cold here.
Okay, it's pretty cold also out here, so thanks for that. That's all from me.
Our next question comes from the line of Svante Krokfors from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Jani, Erik, and Maija, Svante from Nordea. Yeah, a couple of questions left after Anssi. The first one is on top- line guidance. It appears a bit cautious given an assumption of around 2% rental growth. Do you expect rental headwinds or is it mainly owing to the timing of completions of new apartments in 2021?
It's actually a combination of several things. As mentioned, of course, we estimate the like-for-like rental growth to be moderate during the first half of this year given the COVID-19 and the estimates when the sufficient vaccination coverage will be reached. That plays a role there as well. It's good to note, of course, that the guidance is given without any impact of potential acquisitions. We are still actively looking for acquisitions, but it's not included in this guidance. What comes to the timing of completions, there's no change there.
Okay, thank you. Then the EUR 130 million fair value change, you said that almost EUR 100 million was owing to cash flow. That's quite a lot, around EUR 4 million probably, but what's the source of that?
We've been able to increase the rents in a normal manner the whole last year basically, and that of course pushes the rents slightly up, and that has a positive impact for cash flows. Because of that, of course, the value goes up. It's simply. There's some savings regarding the maintenance cost as well that plays a role there as well. It's coming through the fact that we've been able to increase the rents.
Okay, and then the last one regarding the valuation yield. It didn't change much during the year. My understanding is that there have been some reference deals that you also have been looking at, but not participated given the low yields in that. When do you expect those to come through to your numbers, or do you expect that to happen at all?
I think it's thank you for the question, Anssi, Svante. I think it's still the same one. Of course, we have seen that in the market, deals have been done with quite aggressive yields. On the other hand, we've been talking with the brokers and the valuation advisors, and we have to be patient and wait whether they feel that there is enough evidence in the market to provide any changes in valuation yields. We don't have any color to provide any possible timing.
Thank you. Perhaps an add-on on that regarding the investor activity, especially among foreign investors making direct investments into residential, for example. How has the activity there developed during the year? Did they return after the summer and that activity level has stayed high? How do you see it?
Of course, there was an impact because of the pandemic and nobody was able to travel, but we saw that activities started again after the summer. It still seems the same that all the international investors are interested in the Finnish market. We do have here a good operational environment, so the legislation, the long-term demand, and there's plenty of money in the world seeking good investment opportunities. On the other hand, all the competitors are welcome to join Finland. We do know the market.
Okay, thanks for answering my questions. Our next question comes from the line of Erik Granström from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Most of my questions have already been answered, but I had one or two left. Could you say something about your expected vacancy rate? You mentioned that you think that like-for-like is going to be back and loaded this year. It seems like you're completing a majority of your projects towards the second half of 2021 as well. What do you see underlying vacancies developing in 2021 versus 2020?
We have not been providing any kind of outlooks concerning the vacancy. Last year, we were able to keep it in a fairly good level despite the current situation. As we provided information, we do believe that we expect urbanization to continue even stronger after COVID-19. As Erik provided color, the like-for-like growth will be stronger during the last part of the year than during the first part of the year.
Okay, but does that basically then mean that vacancy rates underlying should be rather stable the first half of the year and then slowly start to decrease as we get into the second half if that plays into the like-for-like development as well?
How we see the market is that as long as the COVID-19 is here and urbanization is slightly muted and students are not able to move in a normal manner, that of course is going to have an impact for the market as a whole. After the vaccination coverage is enough and urbanization is starting to speed up again, we estimate that then of course the situation is the new oneside is going to be stronger. As we discussed in relation to our outlook, we estimate that the positive things are going to happen in the second half of this year. It is of course related to the timing when the vaccination coverage is there and things are starting to normalize, if you like.
Okay, thank you. My last question is perhaps sort of a follow-up on your ability to look for acquisitions. It sounds like you are actively looking to acquire properties. At the same time, you're also stating that the investor market is quite tough because you have aggressive players pushing the yield downwards. Where do you stand from here? Does it mean that you need to lower your yield requirements in order to be able to acquire something, or do you expect prices to all of a sudden fall and investors leave the market so that you can step in and acquire? Could we just get some sense of your strategy in terms of acquiring assets?
Yeah, thank you for the question. It is an important one. As I provided color for us, it is most important that we are able to create growth by using multiple sources. We are optimizing different ways. We are creating the growth based on new development projects. Typically, half of the projects are based on our own land and half of the projects we buy from construction companies.
Sometimes when situations change and the operational environment gets a bit more challenging, like last year, we are able to actually move fast and use the potential in the market. For example, last year we ended up making a couple of big agreements with construction companies providing more new development projects. We are converting buildings into apartments. The Metropolia case is proceeding. We are able to move fast and buy a portfolio if it is suitable for us. We are in no hurry to buy anything at any cost. We are aiming to grow by using all the elements all the time.
Okay, thank you. Very clear. Those were my questions. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Céline Soo-Huynh from Barclays, please. Please go ahead.
Hi everyone. Just one question for me, please. I was wondering if you could expand a little bit more on your new long-term incentive plan and how it's different from the previous one. It seems to me that they already target for total revenue growth. How different are the new thresholds for that new LTIP? Thank you.
I didn't quite hear. [Foreign language]
The new LTI is pretty much in line with the previous one. There is the management team as well as certain other people included in that. There is a three-year earnings period. It's linked to the shares, the amount of shares each participant can get through this program. The key metrics there are top line growth and FFO per share.
Yeah, I'm just more interested on the target because you already are setting a target to, like you said, 3 to 5% total revenue growth. How is the LTI different in terms of that target? Is that above that 5%?
So average of three years top- line growth. And it's in line with the strategic targets.
Okay, okay. Thank you.
Thank you. I remind you that if you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two. There will now be a brief pause while questions are being registered. There are no further audio questions at this time. Please go ahead, speakers.
Thank you very much. We have received some questions from the chat. A lot of them we have already discussed, but I try to take those that we haven't yet. There's a question that what was the financial occupancy rate for the last quarter?
We haven't disclosed occupancy rate on quarterly basis. The occupancy rate was slightly up 0.1 percentage point during Q4 compared to Q3.
How we are considering the high supply of new homes in the market might also have impacted the turnover. The high supply of new builds entering the market, is this only impacting small units?
I think, as I said, we have seen a lot of apartments complete in the market last year. Less demand as urbanization hasn't been proceeding in a normal manner and many students moving out of the apartments. On the other hand, one factor is, as we've been saying, that urbanization will continue. On the other hand, our strategy and our business is not based on only creating not enough supply in the market. We aim to be the best player in the market, providing added value for our customers. Our aim is that we will be the customer's number one choice. In the long run, of course, we see that there's a long-term demand in the market, but on the other hand, we want to be the best player in the market.
I think all the other questions we have already discussed. Thank you very much for all the questions and participating in our event today.