Good morning, and welcome to the first quarter of 2019. It is the first time that we will have a presentation both in Swedish and one in English. If you want to read the Q&A from the Swedish conference call, we will translate that part and publish it on our homepage. If you have any questions on this presentation, you can just click on the letter icon here on this page to ask some questions, and we will answer them with a mail later. Now turn to next page.
I will start to talk general about what happened the first quarter. Some of the important events were that we sold the last property in Helsingborg, Mässhaken, Pålsjö, which we constructed and completed last year. We also signed an agreement with SEB Trygg Liv for the acquisition of a commercial property at Lorensbergsgatan here in the city center of Gothenburg.
You can see the property here on this slide. On April 1st this year, Wallenstam initiated a deeper cooperation with Jämtkraft, which take over all our electricity sales to end customers. Wallenstam, we will retain all 66 wind turbines and will remain self-sufficient in renewable energy. Wallenstam will also be one of the six construction and property companies that will develop Landvetter Södra, a common place for 25,000 people to live. Landvetter Södra will be built close to Gothenburg Landvetter Airport. During this first quarter, we have started new construction of almost 770 apartments, mainly rentals for our own management. Now turning to next page.
We have our properties in the growing cities, Gothenburg and Stockholm. The commercials are mainly in Gothenburg City Center, and the rental apartments are in both cities. We have also almost [400] rental apartments in Uppsala. The property value is SEK 47 billion and the lettable area is 1.2 million square meters , and the occupancy rate is 99%. Now turning to next page four.
The net operating income increased by 7% compared last year, the rental income by 6%, and the operating expenses increased as well. I will talk more about this on the coming slides. Now turn to next page.
Successively, when the new construction coming into management, we get a more and more efficient property portfolio, combined with the work with our existing properties. Here you can see the result. The net operating income increase as well as the surplus ratio. Now turning to next page.
The rental income increased by 6%, in total SEK 30 million. The main part is from our completed new construction. It is SEK 20 million, which has come into our own management. You can also see that the rents continue to increase and it is a strong commercial market. In the commercial part, the rents in existing commercial properties increased by 5%. The operating expenses are higher compared last year. We have a larger property holding, but we have also a new accounting standard, IFRS 16 from the 1st of January, which means we need to recognize the site leasehold rents as financial expense instead of an operating expense, as if we had owned the land by ourselves.
The reinvoicing consists of higher property tax, which is mainly reinvoiced to the tenants. The property maintenance consists of higher expenses regarding, for example, district heating and sanitation because of new rates, and also our focus on the security and other things around our properties. Now turning to next page.
The commercial letting market keeps strong and the vacancy rate is 3%. Here are some of the new leases this quarter. Skolinspektionen who moves to Gårda of 1,120 sq m. One more example is Morris, the clothing brand, who will move to the area where we do a big refurbishment of the whole block, Kvarteret Victoria, here in the city center of Gothenburg. The renegotiations which we made this quarter resulted in increased rents of an average 8%. Now turn to next page.
The income from property management increased by 20%. The increased administrative expenses is mainly because more employees compared to last year. The lower financial expenses are because of lower interest rates. Compared last year, the average interest rate is 70 basis points lower compared last year and amounted to 1.15%. Now turn to page 9.
Here are some words about the financing. During this quarter, we extended the fixed interest term with new interest rate derivatives of a volume of SEK 1.5 billion with 10 years maturity. This means that we secure our interest rate for a long time perspective. We have a total volume of SEK 9.5 billion of derivatives, and it's 44% of the total loan volume. We have a fixed interest term of 44 months on closing day. We have interest-bearing liabilities of SEK 2.5 billion more on average compared last year, and we are still mainly financed through bank loans, as you can see here on the graph. It's 70% through bank loans. Now turning to next page.
The income from our wind turbines increased, and the main reason is higher prices, both regarding energy prices and energy certificates. It's compared to the same period last year. We can see some decreased prices for the first quarter compared to year-end 2018. We also produced around 35% more energy compared to last year, the same quarter. If you look at the segment for energy, it's SEK 30 million better compared last year. You can see that here on this slide because the hedging is more correct recognized in the segment. You can read that in our report. The depreciation on the wind turbines will be SEK 5 million lower per quarter in the future because we have now started to use the book value instead of the investment cost as a base to the depreciation. So in one year, it's SEK 20 million lower depreciation.
Some words about the selling. This quarter, we sold the last property in Helsingborg, the development property Mässhaken to Willhem. So now we don't have anything left in Helsingborg. We have also sold a few apartments for co-ops, and in total, everything resulted in a profit of around SEK 75 million. Now turning to next page.
The value changes in investment properties amounted to SEK 285 million, and half is from our new construction, and the other part from the increased net operating income in our existing properties. We haven't adjusted the yield requirements at all this first quarter. The 10-year swap rate decreased from 1.12% at year-end to [0.84%], which mean that we have unrealized negative value changes of the derivatives this quarter of SEK 202 million. In total, we realized a profit before tax of SEK 416 million. Now turning to next page.
The balance sheet. The main assets are our investment properties. It has increased by SEK 5.5 billion compared the first quarter last year, and the main reason is our investments in our new constructions, and also value changes. The new standard, IFRS 16, regarding the leasehold also affected the balance sheet. We need to recognize the value both as a liability and an asset. It affected accountings with SEK 421 million on both sides. Now turning to next page.
We have almost 3,000 apartments under construction. They are both in Stockholm and Gothenburg, as you can see here on this picture. You can also see when we estimate that they will be completed. This will, in the future, come into our management and create value, and also during the construction time. Now turn to page 14. We have invested nearly SEK 0.8 billion this first quarter, and we keep our high equity ratio of 44%. It is higher compared to last year's first quarter, which we have marked with a gray line from 2016 to 2018. This investment is just the building costs and not land costs. Now turning to page 15.
We have started almost 770 apartments this quarter, and they are both in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Now turning to page 16. New York, Gärdet in Stockholm, we have finally started this co-op project. It is on our own land, and we own the yellow property behind this new construction. As always, when we do a co-op, we wait and see how the market is when it is fully completed, and then we decide if we shall switch it into rentals instead, or if we should keep it as a co-op. But we think this is a very good area for co-ops, and now there are not so many starts in the area, so we think it is a good time to start this project. Now turn to page 17.
Here in Österåker, we started our second project here of 305 apartments. We already have 128 apartments here under construction. So now we have just above 400 apartments here. We think it is a good area and hope to have more here in the future. Now turning to page 18.
Umami Park, Sundbyberg in Hallonbergen. We have started 141 more apartments here in this urban development project. Now we have around 360 apartments here ongoing in this area. Now turning to page 19.
Kallebäcks Terrasser. It is an historical start of the largest urban development project ever. It is Kallebäcks Terrasser, where we bought the Arla, the old milk factory. We took down the factory and made place for 1,800 new apartments and also commercial premises. We have started the first 270 apartments here. Now turning to page 20.
Here are some words of the key ratios for the first quarter. The equity ratio, it is stable on 44%, and the LTV of 45%, and the surplus ratio are almost the same as the last quarter, 2018. The occupancy rates are 99%. The ICR, here it is 1.5, and maybe you think it is quite low, but it is affected by a single time realization of interest rate derivatives last year, and without those, it will be 7x instead. The net asset value per share amounts to SEK 83.60 per share. Now turn to next page.
The goal 2023. We started our new business plan now in 2019, but we started to measure the fourth quarter of 2018. This quarter, we created SEK 1.30 in net asset value, which means that we have created in total SEK 4.40 of the goal of SEK 40. Now turning to next page.
I will stop to thank you for listening, and you are welcome to send me some questions through the icon here on this page, and I will answer it later on with a mail. Thank you again. Goodbye.