List of the 250 largest Housing Companies in Germany

Database of the largest housing companies in Germany for direct download as an Excel list

The list of the largest housing companies in Germany gives you access to the most important German housing companies with just one click. You can easily purchase the database from our online shop and download it directly as an Excel file. The clearly structured list can be filtered, sorted and edited according to your requirements and is available to you for an unlimited period of time. Our research team regularly updates the data it contains and sends updates of the list to our customers free of charge within one year of purchase. In this way, we ensure that you are always working with the most up-to-date data. In addition to general contact data, the list of the largest housing companies in Germany also contains information on the size and activity of the companies. You can see from our list how many residential units, commercial units and parking spaces the housing associations hold in their portfolios. We also indicate whether new construction projects are being realised, third-party properties are being managed and property purchases are being actively pursued.

Housing associations as valuable leads for property investors, estate agents, consultants and more

The largest housing companies in Germany are not only active in purchasing properties and managing their own residential units, but some of them also sell their property portfolios. For this reason, our database is a valuable tool for real estate investors and investment managers to identify potential partners. Housing companies also represent an interesting target group for real estate agents and consultants from the real estate scene. The database is perfect for lead generation. You can sort the companies by the number of housing units they own, filter the companies by turnover or pick out companies that are realising new construction projects. In addition, the contact details contained are suitable for contacting potential business partners in an uncomplicated manner.

This information is included in the list of the largest housing companies in Germany

• Type of housing company: private, municipal resp. city or church
• Number of owned residential units, commercial units and parking spaces
• Management of third-party property (yes/no)
• Realisation of new building projects (yes/no)
• Active in property acquisition (yes/no)
• Turnover for the years 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 as well as information on the number of employees
• General contact details incl. address, e-mail address, telephone number, website
• Names of the management

Incl. municipal housing associations, private housing companies and church housing associations

A relevant share of residential real estate in Germany is managed by the largest housing companies. In particular, the largest German housing companies are listed on the stock exchange and manage a stock of several tens of thousands of residential units. Other housing societies are owned by municipalities and cities and fulfil an important function in the regional real estate market. Still other companies were founded by the church or have been in family hands for years.

Research Germany: the first address for databases from the real estate industry in Germany

The real estate industry is characterised by a high degree of intransparency. This is why it is often not easy to identify the right business partners for a project during the lead generation process. This is where Research Germany’s research team comes in by creating and maintaining comprehensive industry and investor lists and offering them via its own online shop. In-depth market knowledge and the application of modern research methods allow us to make the hard-to-access real estate industry transparent and to map the most important market participants. Our databases include, for example, a list of the largest real estate investors in Germany or a list of more than 1,000 project developers . If you have any questions about our service, are interested in a free preview file or would like to make an individual list enquiry, we would be pleased to hear from you at contact [at] researchgermany.com. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Picture sources: Vlad Hilitanu, Simone Hutsch

List of the 5 largest housing companies in Germany (managed, owned housing units)

Compared to other countries, there is still comparatively little home ownership in Germany, but a lot of people live in rented accommodation. Professional renting is the business of housing companies. There are many of them in Germany, and they are run by different organisations. These are the 5 largest on the market:

1st place: Vonovia SE, Bochum (411,236 residential units)

Vonovia is by far the largest housing company in Germany in terms of housing stock under management and has been a DAX-listed company since 2015. Vonovia was founded in 2001 as Deutsche Annington and at that time belonged to the Japanese finance and investment group Nomura. The company started its business by taking over around 64,000 railway workers’ flats that were privatised by the German government at the turn of the millennium.

In the following years, Deutsche Annington grew dynamically – mainly by buying up competitors. In 2005, for example, it took over the business of Viterra, Germany’s largest private housing provider at the time (152,000 residential units). In 2014, the two competitors Vitus and Dewag (together 40,000 residential units) were bought, followed by the takeover of Gagfah in 2015. In the same year, Deutsche Annington was renamed Vonovia. The group employs around 10,000 people.

2nd place: Deutsche Wohnen SE, Berlin (161,500 residential units)

In 1998, Deutsche Bank founded Deutsche Wohnen, thus combining its residential properties – acquired from the Hoechst pension fund and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1999, the subsidiary was placed on the stock exchange; since 2006, Deutsche Wohnen has been independent of Deutsche Bank. In 2017, the company’s headquarters were moved from Frankfurt/Main to Berlin. Deutsche Wohnen’s flats are mainly located in Berlin, in the Rhine-Main region, in the Rhineland and in some larger German cities. The company has around 1,300 employees and has been listed on the DAX since 2020.

3rd place: SAGA Siedlungs-Aktiengesellschaft Hamburg (134,458 residential units)

The SAGA group of companies is the largest residential landlord in Hamburg and at the same time a company with a long tradition. Siedlungs-Aktiengesellschaft Altona (SAGA) was founded as early as 1922. In 1999 it merged with Gesellschaft für Wohnen und Bauen mbH (GWG), which had existed since 1926. The SAGA group of companies is under municipal ownership. The SAGA flats are almost exclusively located in the Hamburg city area. One out of six Hamburg residents is a SAGA tenant. The group employs around 1,000 people.

4th place: LEG Immobilien AG, Düsseldorf (134,031 residential units)

In 1970, Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft NRW mbH was formed from the merger of several non-profit housing companies in North Rhine-Westphalia. Originally 68 percent state-owned and 22 percent owned by the state-owned NRW Bank, the company was privatised in 2008. The state shares were sold to the financial investor Whitehall Real Estate Funds, and the company was floated on the stock exchange in 2013. Since then, the housing company has traded under the name LEG Immobilien AG. The housing stock is located exclusively in North Rhine-Westphalia. LEG Immobilien employs around 1,400 people and has around 365,000 tenants.

5th place: Vivawest Wohnen GmbH, Essen (116,859 residential units)

Vivawest is the second largest housing company in North Rhine-Westphalia after LEG Immobilien. The company was founded under the name Evonik Immobilien GmbH. Evonik Industries is a special chemicals company that was spun off from RAG Aktiengesellschaft – the former Ruhrkohle AG – in 2006. Evonik’s housing stock was combined in Immobilien GmbH. In 2011, the company was renamed Vivawest. In 2012, the company merged with THS GmbH, a long-established housing services group in the area of mine housing. THS alone contributed around 70,000 flats to the merger. Vivawest is 40 percent owned by the RAG Foundation, 26.8 percent by the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union.