Market conditions weighing down residential property sales in the Netherlands
Decline in development of new commercial real estate
Ethical business practices
The new Policy Rule on Integrity in Commercial Real Estate Operations that was issued by the
Dutch Central Bank (DNB) was implemented at Rabo Real Estate Group in 2012 as scheduled.
In this context, a number of divisions organised integrity workshops and courses on how to
deal with dilemmas for employees.
Responsible business practices
Rabobank Group offsets its group-wide carbon emissions from energy use on an annual basis
by purchasing carbon certificates. Expenditures on equipment explicitly include assessments
of the scope for energy savings. The current car lease scheme is being reviewed; it is set to be
converted into a system with greater focus on actual emissions.
Community involvement
Rabo Real Estate Group wants its operations to be future-proof and forward-looking.
Rabo Real Estate Group has been the main sponsor of Open Monumentendag (Heritage Day),
one of the largest cultural events in the Netherlands celebrating Dutch cultural heritage, for
years now. In 2012, over 925,000 people visited the more than 3,500 historical buildings and
sites that were open to the public. Rabo Real Estate Group also expresses its commitment to
the community through the activities of three non-profit divisions:
- Fondsenbeheer Nederland, a fund manager, which manages public/private community
investment funds to promote the quality of spatial planning in the Netherlands;
- Bouwfonds Cultuurfonds, a cultural fund, which supports cultural projects with ties to area
developments undertaken by Bouwfonds Property Development; and
- Bouwfonds Kunststichting, an art foundation, which collects, manages and preserves
modern art to inspire people in their work environment.
Bouwfonds Property Development, which operates as Bouwfonds Ontwikkeling in the
Netherlands, develops complete residential areas in the Netherlands. Its other home markets
are France and Germany. The regional branches of Bouwfonds Ontwikkeling collaborate with
Rabobank Nederland and the local Rabobanks in the sale of new-build developments, area
development or rejuvenation, and campaigns to give an impulse to local housing markets.
The Dutch housing market was affected by ongoing consumer
Number of residential properties sold by country uncertainty. Although the Dutch Cabinet's policy measures will
bring some degree of reform of the housing market in the long
in run, they may, in fact, cause a further decline in the housing
2 market in the near future. In the Netherlands, the number of
'L transactions fell by about 30% and average house prices were
down on 2011 as well. Bouwfonds Ontwikkeling sold 2,739 (3,922)
residential properties in the Netherlands in 2012. The French
market also suffered from the economic decline and the political
,43. uncertainty about housing subsidies; fewer homes than last year
The Netherlands were sold as a result. The German housing market remained
m France sound and the number of residential properties sold continued to
Germany rise thanks to low mortgage interest rates and high consumer
other confidence. Bouwfonds Property Development sold 6,312 (8,206)
residential properties in total in 2012.
MAB Development focuses primarily on developing new commercial properties and on
revamping existing commercial real estate in high-quality city centre locations. MAB's
developments are usually mixed-use with a particular emphasis on retail. Given the slowdown
in economic growth and the emergence of the new world of work, office vacancy rates are
now considerable, especially in secondary single-use locations. There still is demand, however,
in city centre locations, for instance near train stations in cities such as Amsterdam and
Rotterdam, where MAB develops office space for specific users. The covenant to combat
office space vacancy, which was signed by a large number of public and private parties,
including MAB Development, proposes measures to reduce the vacancy rate of offices.
Besides developing fewer new-builds, redevelopment is a priority in the covenant.
One example of a redevelopment undertaken by MAB Development is the Coolsingel
development in Rotterdam.
70 Annual Report 2012 Rabobank Group
