Good morning, and welcome to the Presentation of our Report for the First Half of 2024. As usual, I have our CFO and Vice CEO, also based here with me today. After our presentation, of course, a group opportunity to ask questions. First on the next slide, please. In one way, it's difficult to summarize the first half of 2024, mainly because of the geopolitical situation we're also in. But what has been positive is that we've seen many of our markets developing in a positive way. For example, the transaction market in Sweden is more liquid today than it was a while ago. The financial market, we will tell you more about that, it's absolutely much more healthy.
But on the rental market, where there are some more challenges, but mainly also because of the struggling economy in Europe and in Sweden. But we will tell you more about this later. What is positive for the quarter and for the first six months is that we're increasing our rental income. We have essentially unchanged gross profit. We have some during Q2, a very small write-downs, SEK 80 million, and so we see, as we said, a stabilizing transaction market and values in the markets. But we'll tell you more about that later on, too. What is negative, of course, is that our net lettings were weak.
But I will tell you a little bit more about, or we'll come back to this, both the net letting and the view of the market, our view for the market a bit later. But I will start, we hand over to Åsa to go through our numbers in more detail. So please go ahead, Åsa.
Thank you, Stefan. Slide three, please. The first half of 2024 showed stable numbers with increased rental income and improved net operating income, despite the sale of two properties at the end of 2023. Rental income amounted to SEK 1.7 billion, which is slightly higher than the previous year. A decrease due to property divestment in the autumn was offset by index increases and the taking of possession in previous project properties, of which condominiums occupation in Te gen Mindre was the largest one. On a like-for-like basis, income increased by 8%. Increased operating expenses were mainly due to increased heating expenses and higher administrative expenses. The surplus ratio came in at 73%.
Birger Bostad's gross profit amounted to SEK -5 million, as one project was completed and where final recognition occurred during the first quarter, and the second quarter was only charged with administrative expenses. Central administration costs came in at SEK 60 million. Interest expenses increased somewhat compared to the previous year, which was mainly due to a slightly higher average interest rate. The average interest rate was 3.17% at the end of June. After having increased during Q1, it fell back slightly during Q2. Our active work with interest rate derivatives have delivered good results. In addition, loans are currently refinanced at improved margins. The result in associated companies amounted to SEK -38 million, of which 49 million, SEK - 49 million, related to a capital contribution to Arenab olaget, and + 9 million related to a profit from the JV project in Haga Norra.
We therefore reported profit from property management of SEK 659 million, compared to SEK 703 million in the previous year. Unrealized changes in value amounted to almost S EK -1.5 billion. I will come back to this very soon. We also recognized a small realized profit of SEK 4 million, which was a time lag from the transaction with NREP. The surplus value in the derivatives portfolio, which increased during Q1, decreased again in Q2. Overall, the surplus value increased by SEK 29 million during the first six months. The tax expense, which related to deferred tax only, was positive and amounted to + SEK 137 million. Please turn to slide four. The yield requirements leveled off and were essentially unchanged during the quarter.
The transactions in our markets during the period confirmed the yield requirements and property values in our portfolio. In the quarter, we have again independently valued a large proportion of the portfolio, just over 50% this time. The rest of the properties have been valued internally. The average yield requirement in our portfolio increased due to a certain time lag by three basis points during the quarter to 4.54%. Since the value peaked in Q3 2022, we have now written down the property value by approximately 15% in total. The total change in value amounted to SEK -1.5 billion, and we are now reporting a property value of SEK 77.6 billion. Slide five, please.
The simulation here shows that we can withstand write downs of a further almost 15% based on today's market valuation, without impacting our internal target, and the margin is even higher in relation to the covenants in our bank agreements. Next slide, please. Reported equity decreased during the quarter and amounted to SEK 121 per share, and the long-term net asset value, the EPRA NRV, amounted to SEK 146 per share. The equity asset ratio amounted to 46%, and the loan-to-value ratio was 43%. Both of these key performance indicators confirm our continued strong balance sheet, and the interest coverage ratio amounted to 2.4, only a small decrease of 0.1 since year-end. Now, please turn to page seven.
The access to and pricing of financing has continued to improve during the spring. This applies to both the capital market and banks, even though the biggest improvement has taken place in the capital market, where margins are currently competitive with or better than banks. The commercial paper market is continuing to function well. We have reduced the margin in a couple of steps and are now issuing three months commercial paper at 50 basis points, compared to 70 basis points at the year-end. As stated, the bond market is also functioning well. Overall, during the first six months, we have issued SEK 3.7 billion, of which SEK 1.2 billion to be settled early in July. The margins have continued to improve.
In February, we issued a 3-year bond at a margin of 148 basis points, and most recently, the corresponding margin was 110 basis points. And we also issued a smaller 5-year bond at a margin of 135 basis points. Undrawn revolving credit facilities total SEK 6 billion. In addition, SEK 1.2 billion will be received in proceeds from the latest bond issue, which will be used for repayment of other loans. Overall, we have good preparedness for upcoming financing needs and refinancing. We have facilities in place to cover the upcoming bond maturities during 2024 and 2025. We intend to refinance our bond maturities with new bonds. Our bank facilities are continually refinanced through extensions. And now please turn to slide 8.
Of the loan portfolio, 55% is fixed, mainly based on long-term maturities and mostly through straightforward interest rate swaps, supplemented by some fixed rate bonds. Approximately 40% of the current loan portfolio is matched by fixed rate terms beyond 2025. We have continued to work actively with callable interest rate swaps, with the aim of reducing our interest expense. The average fixed term amounts to 1.8 years, adjusted for the estimated maturity of the callable swaps, the fixed rate term increases to 2.8 years. Fixed term rates provide us with protection against rising market interest rates. In the short term, the higher market interest rates will thus have a more limited effect on our interest expenses.
For a moving twelve-month period ahead, an increase in the market interest rate will generate a higher interest expense of approximately SEK 145 million per year, all else unchanged. Now back to Stefan.
A question was, that works both way, doesn't it?
It does work well. It does work both ways. Yeah.
That's it.
Correct.
So, and also what's really have been nice is to see how the margins for the last during this first 6 months have developed, as you said, and I think that's important to also see that the liquidity has been really good in the bond market. So, next slide is about mentioning some, or we're listing some transactions that have been done in our core market. And as you see, the list is long. It could have been even longer because we've done quite a lot of the transactions done.
We saw yesterday also really a big one, when at the top of this list, you see Metronomen 1, 18,000 sq m sold by AMF, the pension fund, and bought by Folksam. Actually, the KPA Pension is a part of the Folksam group, and it was a SEK 3 billion deal. So it's... And all those transactions has been at very good level, levels that very well in line with our valuation, so it's at some even lower. There are some of those that has been done a few, a little bit lower, lower yield levels on the below Folksam, but they're mainly you can look upon as a trove of assets close to Stockholm or in, and some of them bought by family offices.
So it's a more liquid, more activity in the transaction market, and we also see that in other segments, like the residential, there are more activity all over Sweden and, as you know, in the logistics that have been for quite a while. So it's nice to see how it's developing. Next slide, please. Those graphs are from the last quarter. Essentially, it's only a couple of weeks, and we just instantly can report it for Q1, and that is the last update we got from Citymark, but I think it's the same trend. The rental development, or the rents in the city of Stockholm, the CBD, are still stable.
We saw some complex sign of the, I think, new record levels, close to NK, 45,000 square meters in offices rented by a lawyer, a law firm. But we also see a mass struggling in some sub-areas. We can see continuing vacancy rates growing in some of the, some of the suburbs. We especially see that we know. We also see that the number of employees are flattening out after growth for more than 20 years. But on the other hand, very little new office space is under construction. So I would say it's still a good market. It still takes a long time to get decision, especially from the private companies, and a little bit more decision-making in the public sector.
But in general, we have a lot of discussions going on, but it will take some time. On the other hand, we also see that the trend of fewer square meters per employees continue. That's mainly because we become better at using space and at determining how the different workplaces are used. The interest in the different services is continuing to increase, and we are therefore also taking further steps to be at the cutting edge when it comes to acting as advisor to our existing and potential tenants, and all to help them to create places for human meetings, conversations, concentrating, and doing business on that.
I also like to stress that the situation in the Stockholm office market is definitely not, it's not entirely gloomy, as we can hear from sometimes from markets, London, Paris, and New York, and other US cities. As you know, all markets have their own characteristics, which make us all different, and I'm still a great believer in Stockholm's long-term development for the office market. But there will be, it will be even more focus on, as we said before, the location, the public transportation and so on. I think our areas are in a good location with good transportation. So long term, I think we will be... There's a lot of reason to be positive.
So this list, as you have seen, before, and our long-term, I think it's important to say, show how stable and strong long-term customers we have. As you know, we also signed a renegotiated Telia contract, and that will mean that, in a while, we'll be down to 2.5% instead of 3%, 3.6%. On the other hand, we will also see some of our other new tenants coming up here, for example, Alfa Laval and Saab, within the next 12 months. So, when talking about Telia, maybe you can say you have seen the press release we sent out some weeks ago. We did an agreement with them that are reducing the space with about 12,000 square meters.
The initial effect on this quarter is a net letting, negative of SEK 23 million. At the same time, Telia will also have to pay some exit compensation, which we will be allocated over the term of the lease agreement. With this agreement, Telia is leasing almost, will be, they are leasing 25,000 square meters. We also prolong the contract, made it a little longer, nine months, so it's in the end of 2031.
And, so, but in total, when we see also that we'll be able to take this space and this area and the, for better rents than we've got so far, and we're expecting it, we have an investment expected to be about SEK 60 million-SEK 70 million, and we will, but we, we will, when we have signed, the full new contracts, we will add another positive net letting of SEK 20 million. So in total, we're expecting it to be more than SEK 40 million in new contracts. So long term, it will be net positive. This quarter, it was negative on the figures. Here we see the net letting SEK -74 million for the first six months, now - SEK 36 million for the second quarter. And, of course, that is, that's a disappointing figure.
We had, as I said before, a lot of discussions, negotiations with the thing, will end up in a signed contract, I hope at least. We didn't have, get them to sign it before the summer. So with that said, I will looking forward to the rest of the next six months here for the year. We have a goal, as you know, for reaching a positive letting of about SEK 80 million annually. But after this, the start of this year, I don't really dare to believe that we can manage it for 2024. I hope, but I'm not really believe it right now, that we, that we'll be lucky with some of the larger product, product, discussions we have. But, it's more likely that the year, this year will end on an-...
Actually, plus, as well, we made a positive figure when we're ending it up, so a good second half, but not the whole year we will not. We don't really dare to think it would be as positive we normally expect it to be. As I said, we have several good discussions in progress, but, so let's come back after the summer. Next slide, please. Yeah, as you see, we do know about the renegotiations now that we know normally in most of the cases, that we just prolong the contracts on unchanged terms, and that has continued during this beginning of this year. We had some small renegotiations with negative outcome.
In the second quarter, I think it was, - 0.8 or something, so relatively unchanged, but it is stable rental levels in most of the areas. In some of these, there was some upside when renegotiating, but in some, of course, there can be some small ones that are overrent also in some areas. So, our occupancy rate of about 90% is still not what we where we like it to be. As you know, we are working for getting up to 94%-95% again. It will take some time, we said before, but that's where we will be, and we would like to be in the next three to four years , five years, or three to five years.
And is where we see the vacancies is mainly Solna Business Park, and that we know, but we feel that we have good interest for Solna Business Park now. And they have, when you have able to visit next time, you will see a lot of new activity, new office tenants, but also a lot of retailers that are now opening up for on bicycle, and we also have Bosch Siemens there, and we will have Miele there, and so it's happening a lot there, but it will, so we see positive feeling about that. As you know, we like to aim to be as transparent as possible, which may always include this graph in our reports and presentation.
It shows the development of contracted rental income, including what we noted about occupancy, relocations, renegotiation, but it's excluding letting targets and indexation. It's decreased in the fourth quarter of 2023, as you know, because of what we sold, and also the banking properties we had, we knew it. It's a bit lower from before, and it's mainly because of how I would say? If we would have, I like say, added another 2 quarters here, for example, it's the end of 2025 or 3, beginning of 2026. I would say that the goal for us, this should be starting with a nine.
It will be what we know now, Saab, Alfa Laval, other discussions we had, Haga Norra, according some indexation, so it will definitely, I hope, be more than 900 something in the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026. So far this year, we have invested about SEK 1.3 billion. It will be a bit similar next six months, and after that, it will be less. We haven't started any new commercial projects, and a big one during this, and it will take, I think, what we see today, it will also take some time before the next big ones will be started. We haven't got any more signed contracts now. Yeah, our projects are progressing in line with the plans.
We have completed the Regulatorn 4 for Opera, the Royal Opera and the Royal Theater. As you can see, we're missing that on this list this time. The other ones, that's also why the occupancy rate has been a little lower, because that was 100%, occupied, of course. We have the other ones, working with filling up the pool, signing new contract pools. We know that Regulatorn 3 is on its way now, and it's next door to the Opera, Dramaten . Separate one, Alfa Laval is actually a little bit higher than that, but we don't have the contract signed with restaurant and also Alfa Laval have an option to take more areas. So that's why we don't work with that as much.
So we, I think this will be, well, now here you can also see that it's a rental value for only those products with almost SEK 400 million, SEK 366 million, as it looks today. So the negative is the building costs. And as we've said before, the building costs are still too high. I see, I think we can see a little bit easing, a little bit about it's easier to renegotiate, negotiate some in some of the new contracts when we're out there right now saying, but it takes. It's not a big change, but still a little bit too expensive, I think, to be able to have a positive view on new products. But with that said, next slide, please.
Start residential products, and we started in Haga Norra. I think that looks good actually, because of the demand of apartments in good locations, and I think Haga Norra is a very good location. We will start to sell the tenant-owner apartments after summer, and we still have very good list of interest for that. So hopefully, we can have some positive news during the second half of this year. And that looks much more attractive right now as it is. But in the home, we will continue also to work with future project, but it is more, as you know, it's a small part of our business. But it's right now, it's a positive part. Next, slide, please. Åsa.
Yes. Back to sustainability. This quarter, I thought I would go back to show some of our sustainability key performance indicators. You can see here, in the table, the energy performance target. Energy performance target for this year is 70 kWh per sq m, which represents an improvement of 1 kWh per compared to 2023. However, there has been a cold and wintery start of the year, an extra day in February, and very warm April and May, which means that the energy consumption has actually increased slightly during the first half year of 2024. The proportion of environmentally certified properties remain at an unchanged level. On the other hand, we have improved the rating of 2 properties that were recertified during the quarter. The proportion of green leases is also unchanged.
Likewise, the proportion of green financing, which fell to 99% last year. In terms of total green assets, we have plenty of scope left for green financing. However, one individual mortgage property does not meet up to updated energy consumption requirements. This is a good incentive through the attractive discount on financing, however, and our property management operations are working on bringing down the energy consumption, not only in this specific property, but over the whole property portfolio. Last but not least, I would also like to say that we are very proud that our commitment to social sustainability is making a difference, and I thought that I would provide two good examples of this.
One example is the Homework Help Foundation, Läxhjälpen in Swedish, to which we provide funding for Annerstaskolan School in Flemingsberg, where we supported students with requirements to enter upper secondary school. Now, we have received feedback that 96% of these pupils passed the entry requirements, and that our Homework Help group had higher marriage rating than the rest of the school in average. Also, our engagement in Talang Akademin is also delivering results. So far this year, about 40 people have obtained internships, including a couple in their 60s that got permanent jobs and a completely new life situation. A small contribution from Fabege that makes a big difference for individuals. And by that, back to you, Stefan.
Thank you. So to summarize, before I open up for questions, it's a stable report. It's a stable half first six months, I think. The negative, of course, the net letting. We have focused now on the continuing focus on the cost control. We have continued, of course, a huge focus on the rental work. The financial market has been, I would say, I think I dare to say normal, it's stabilizing and it's back to normal. Transaction market is more kind of normal because it has been maybe too many transactions for some years before, so but it's liquidity, good asset find, as we said, buyers. And there are money on the sitting on the sidelines still, I think, and we see that with the potential funds.
So transaction market is okay, the financial market, okay, the rental market, Stockholm is attractive, is more focused on the... Even continue to be focused on the, good locations, a public transportation, as we said, and, we are focused on now signing new contracts and reducing the vacancy rates. So with that, questions, please.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad.
... The next question comes from John Vuong from Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, team. Thank you for the presentation. On your discussions with occupiers, is there any specific submarkets where you see better demand than others? And could you perhaps also zoom in on the letting progress for the Haga Norra and Hammarby Sjöstad developments?
Thanks all for the questions. You can say the CBD is maybe the strongest market, and then I think all our markets are, as you know, they have good public transportation. So I think we have good discussions in all of them. In Hammarby, maybe you have a little bit more of what we call creative companies, and they have also a little bit more struggling, where maybe with the economy and so challenging times. So it may seem a little bit more turnover there on the- but it's still, like, also a good interest for the future. We have Haga Norra and Hammarby in Solna and Arenastaden, I think, is mainly thinking of.
We haven't had any new signed contracts this quarter, but we have good discussions going on in both of them. So hopefully, within the next, the after summer, we probably have some good news there. Hopefully, if everything is, well, what are going to wait, or at least good discussions, but no signed contracts.
Okay, clear. When you're talking about more potentially more turnover in those creative industries, are you talking about downscaling for these occupiers? Or how should I-
As you know, this, that kind of industry is more sensitive to the economy, but we have the... Very often it's smaller companies, so it's not a big, any big issue. We had in Hammarby, as you know, the last 12 months, some companies have been struggling with refinancing, for example, Cake, the motorbike company that scaled down or even went bankrupt or went and the gick i konkurs . But that's, that is also potential for good, we have good locations out and good areas. So, but it's normal when you have a little more negative economic outlook, so that, yes, those companies are struggling a little bit more. So no big deal.
Okay, that's fair. And then, just on the last slide, so slide 22, you mentioned as one of the priorities for 2024 is to enable future projects. Could you maybe talk about that?
Oh, we continue the plan, planning processes and the planning discussions in zoning discussions in Arenastaden, where we also are, as in now, with normally say we're only halfways, but we need some time and some sign before we realize that. And also in Flemingsberg, of course, we are continuing the zoning plan process where we will then, with the city of putting it and taking into the next steps. So that's what we mean with... And also, you can also add another dimension, is that we work with the products, so we can get better, hopefully cut the investment or the product investments a little bit, so to make it possible to build. It has been too expensive.
Of course, well, the building costs have been coming up, but also maybe we have to look at the products, what are we, what are we building and how are we building it, to be able to reduce the investment.
Okay, that, that makes sense. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thanks. Thank you. Further.
The next question comes from Alexander Totomanov from Green Street. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Two questions for me. So this morning, you reported a negative rental revision of 2.3% on 59 million SEK of renegotiated leases. Are the negative negotiations limited to specific submarkets or a set of submarkets in Stockholm?
Thanks, Alexander, for the question. It's no, it's some different-- as we first of all, it's a very limited number of or amount for the first six months. And as we said before, we the most of the, when we negotiate, we just prolong the contracts on existing terms, since we think it's good, good levels. There are some that has been reduced, but it's very, very few and no, no, you can't... No specific sector, no specific area, and it's no. So the answer, the short answer is no.
Very clear. Thank you. And one question probably for, for Åsa. Fabege has expanded the portfolio of callable swaps to SEK 7 billion from SEK 6 billion previously. Could you give us an idea of the breakdown of the portfolio? Like, are volumes approximately equally spread out, say, SEK 2 billion in 1.8%, 2%, SEK 2 billion, 2.2%, 2.2%, and maybe SEK 3 billion in 2.2% or 2.5%, or is it skewed in one way or another?
You mean for the SEK 7 billion?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
The seven billion, they are all 10-year swaps. So the risk we take is to maintain these swaps for a period of 10 years, and they are at levels between 1.8% and 2.5%. So we pay somewhere between 1.8% and 2.5%, and we receive STIBOR, which today is roughly 3.7. And the bank can cancel them after a period of between 3 and 6 months, and then every 3 months, the bank has an option to cancel as well.
I don't see, we don't, I don't really have here because when you question well, how much is the 1.8 and how much is on 2.5? But I think that the, to make it, think more close to 2, about, a little bit about 2, 2, 2, 2.2, but less than 2, higher levels.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Jonathan Kownator from GS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, two questions on my end. I just wanted to double check on Telia. I think you were saying that it's going to be from 3.6%-2.5% of your total rent after the readjustment. Did I get that correctly? And does that mean that vacancy increases in the portfolio or it is gonna be put for redevelopment, the rest of the space? That was the first question, please. And the second question, just on the ICR of 2.4 times, obviously, you've done refinancing where the margins have improved, you've increased also commercial paper.
So just wanted to understand whether you were comfortable at this stage with the 2.4 x ICR or whether we had looked to mitigate that, and whether you're potentially looking at disposals, in particular, you highlighted there were a few transactions at good levels. So is that something that you're considering at this stage? Thank you.
I think I will start with the last questions regarding the ICR. We are okay with the ICR at this level today, but we also see that we would like to improve it. There are possibilities in increasing rents, of course, increasing the income, and also we see that the interest cost going forward is likely to come down. There will be an improvement going forward in the ICR, maybe not next quarter, but at least when we have the companies moving into the project properties like Saab and Alfa Laval, as an example. But we are not exactly happy with the level long-term, so yes, we would like it to improve. And of course-
There is more-
Selling a property-
Sorry, yeah.
Selling a property is always an option, for us, and we discussed this earlier in the presentation, too, that, we don't have anything specific for sale at the moment, but, it's—we are in a market where there are buyers, and especially as we have seen over the last, weeks, or months, that the transaction volume has increased in Stockholm, and there are buyers for properties in good locations. So that's always an option for us.
Okay. But it, so at this stage, I mean, one of the options that you haven't mentioned is dividend. You know, I suspect it's not an option that you're considering, given these other avenues that you have currently, or just essentially time will improve, you know, the metrics, as you deliver the buildings, and as also the variable component of your interest cost helps. Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah. And you can also say that, as we said when talking about, if you look 80 months from now, the rent level, total rents will be, as what we know today, start with 9 above SEK 900.
Per quarter.
Per quarter, yes. And they also mean that, the project portfolio, as it looks today, with the Porten and Ackordet, Kumminet and Alfa Laval, they are, they're moving in, and also Saab. So, over SEK 7 million will be moved from the, to, to, so start to, earn money again and re-make return. And that will also have a, a positive impact if you look a little bit further on from, from, over 25 and beginning of 2026. And that's also important to have it. Then talking about Telia, when I said 2.5, it was maybe a little bit rough as a figure, but it will be more that it will be decreased. What we have said there, as you know, is that we, we have, net, negative net letting this quarter of SEK 23 million.
We hope, and what we're aiming for, is that it will be +40, or plus net positive in 40 in the future when we sign the new contracts in the same area. So a positive total of 15-20, if you look at it over time. And it's all, but of course, there will be some investments linked to that. But so at the end, we're working with the areas. Now, we couldn't show them to anyone before we announced it some weeks ago, but now we have good interest. So I hope that we can send out some positive news about signing contracts for that area in the next 6-12 months.
So, the positive, what's negative today will be positive and add value a little bit longer term.
Okay, very clear. And just to be clear, I mean, looking also at slide 15, there, there's no new Telia in the sense that you don't have within your top 10 any big expiries in the near term, and you're forecasting fairly flat, i.e., you don't have any big departures upcoming that you're aware of?
We don't have any discussions like that right now.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks so much.
The next question comes from Nadir Rahman from UBS AG. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Good morning. Thanks for the presentation. I wanted to ask, firstly, regarding a comment you made in your Q1 earnings, where you said that the vacancy you would guide to be roughly 5%, and therefore, occupancy at around 95% in the coming quarters or years. There's been, I believe, reduction in the occupancy towards 90%, as of this quarter. And I wanted to ask, where do you see the numbers going forward from here as a forecast? And secondly, on a similar note, with the LTV, we wanted to ask, we've seen it becoming flat now, and where do you see that going from here? And I know there's been questions about the interest coverage ratio as well.
So on the LTV, where do you see that going from here, with valuations starting to perhaps bottom out and reach a trough? Thank you.
We think that this, the valuation has bottomed out, and we will see even uptake. As you said, the transaction market has been more healthy or it even been good or in Stockholm, in our areas the last in this year. So, yes, it's flattening out and probably hopefully a little bit uptick too. When talking about the occupancy rate, yeah, it was the other question I had it. Of course, the long-term goal is 95%. It will take some time, of course. It can be changed, but that over time, it can be up a little bit or even down a little bit, as we saw since quarter from quarter.
But long term, we're working with that in all our areas. The area where we have large lowest occupancy rates right now is Solna Business Park, where we also moved, as you know, some tenants from business park to arena side and increased our vacancies of course. But I think yeah, Solna Business Park right now is a good interest. We have some—we have announced some good contracts there the last six months with Miele, Bosch Siemens, and some other ones. So I'm quite, I think we will... But it can be up and down a little bit between the quarters, but long term, I think the trend has to be up to 94%-95% again.
Thank you.
That's one of the potentials.
The next question comes from Paul May from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the presentation. A couple of quick ones from me. Also first, let's focus on transaction volume and, and valuations. I think you mentioned transaction volume is improving. I think year-on-year it has been, but it's still materially down versus, you know, the sort of general average, shall we say, in terms of transaction volume. And so I'm surprised the confidence you have over where the values are at the moment, on the basis of that, still relatively muted transactional volume. You know, a couple of deals does not necessarily mean the whole portfolio is worth X. And just wondering your comments on that, if you see that transaction market improving, noting June was down year-on-year, for example-
Yeah
... relative to last year across Sweden. And then secondly, and linked to that is, it's a question I ask all companies: would you buy all of your assets today at the current book values with marginal financing costs? I just wonder what your response is on that. Thank you.
That's a good question, but we start with the first one. I think the transaction market, it's difficult to compare between the years, since we also had a very, the transaction markets some years ago, maybe if you just look at the total turnover of transactions that were made, it also include a very M&A activities and so on. So it's difficult to talk generally also about the... Because some portfolios that were we saw some years ago maybe wouldn't be that easy to sell now. But in the Stockholm market, I think it's a healthy market now. We have said all the time that there are many investors on the sidelines.
The pension funds, some other fund managers, some foreigners are active. Folksam has been acquiring, the Swedish insurance company, has been acquiring three properties now. We have some family offices that acquired some, some, trophy assets almost at very low yields.... So, I think the Stockholm market is not back to what we saw some years ago, but quite a healthy market. And with that said, when we also see, as you know, we have external valuation more than 50%, even this quarter. Last quarter, it had been more than 75%, and we feel comfortable that we are, that the values are well. And the other transaction we see in the market is more than well, what to say? That's support our valuations.
If I would buy all the properties? No. Because we would have to any other questions we would have here. But most of them, yes. Would I be buying in the same area? Absolutely. We think the focus we have on CBD or inner city, where we also have the best total return the last 15 years. We have good assets and so on. We have partners, big assets, big, big properties with a very good location. Arenastaden is a great area, and we've, we all, see still a lot of, particularly since we see it, it's a development area, very big future potential. So our business park, as you know, is struggling short term, but, Stockholm's second best public transportation spot.
Flemingsberg, it's a future long-term project where we have quite small investments right now. Hammarby Sjöstad , it's also old industrial. The areas, definitely, of course, there are some properties you can't like all of them. But most of them.
Cool. Thank, thank you for your honesty. And, as a result, would you be... Should we be expecting more disposals over the coming, say, 6, 12 months to take advantage of that good transaction market? And as you say, not all the properties that you own, you would necessarily want to own longer term, but you should expect.
To be honest, that the ones that maybe that must be the most liquid. We of course have some assets that are not that liquid as the other ones, and that's maybe the ones I were thinking about. We have no discussions about disposal, disposals right now. As you know, in history, we have from time to time sold some also to be able to invest in the projects ourselves. So we should not say we could be possible, but we have no discussions right now.
I'm sorry, one last one just on that. The debt ratio continues to sit above your target, I think 13.9 now, slightly increasing versus the 13 target that you have. How would you plan on bringing that back down? And is that a core financial metric, or are you more focused on the LTV and the ICR as-
We are much more focused on the ICR and also the LTV. Although the LTV is still on the strong side. The debt ratio is more, you know, complement to the rest of the financial metrics.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Okay. We don't—I don't think we have any written questions or any questions like, by, by email now. So, to summarize, as we did before, I think like, it's even, even, if the negative net letting was, was in focus, many have been quite positive for the, the rest of the year. So with that said, have a nice weekend, have a nice summer, and please give us a, a call if you have any further questions or comments. So thank you. Have a nice day.