Real Estate segment

In 2020, Hamburg’s office rental market was dominated by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. According to Grossmann & Berger’s latest market report, 340,000 m^² of office space was let – approximately 38 % less than the prior-year figure of 545,000 m^².

Due to the increased supply of office space, the vacancy rate in Hamburg rose to 3.5 % and was thus 0.6 percentage points above the comparable prior-year figure. The vacancy rate is currently expected to rise further.

By contrast, HHLA’s properties in the Speicherstadt historical warehouse district and the fish market area remained largely unaffected by this negative market trend with almost full occupancy as of year-end 2020.

Despite this high occupancy rate, revenue was 5.3 % down year-on-year at € 38.1 million as at 31 December 2020 (previous year: € 40.2 million). The decline resulted mainly from the partial waiving of rent deferrals granted during the pandemic.

These revenue declines led to a strong decrease of 21.5 %, or € 3.6 million, in the operating result (EBIT) to € 12.9 million (previous year: € 16.5 million), with more or less constant maintenance volumes.