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37 Assets and Liabilities Held for Sale

Accounting Policies

To be classified as held for sale, the assets must be available for immediate sale in their present condition subject only to terms that are usual and customary for sales of such assets, and it must be highly probable that a sale will take place. A sale is deemed to be highly probable if there is a commitment to a plan to sell the asset, an active program to locate a buyer and complete the plan has been initiated, the asset is being actively marketed for sale at a reasonable price, and a sale is expected to be completed within one year of the date on which the asset is classified as held for sale.

Vonovia accounts for investment properties as assets held for sale when notarized purchase contracts have been signed or a declaration of intent to purchase has been signed by both parties as of the reporting date but transfer of title will, under the contract, not take place until the subsequent reporting period. Initially they are recognized at the contractually agreed selling price and subsequently at fair value following deductions for costs to sell, if the latter is lower.

Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen sold around 14,750 residential and commercial units to public housing companies in Berlin in September 2021. In addition to properties (asset deal), 17 property-holding companies (share deal) were also sold, with most of the transfers of ownership to be made in 2022.

As of the reporting date, the value of the property stocks sold (asset deal) stood at € 1,358.9 million.

The property-holding companies sold (share deal) were recognized as a disposal group on the balance sheet. To this end, the property stocks and the remaining assets and liabilities were reclassified as of the reporting date as follows:

Transfer to assets held for sale

in € million

Investment properties

1,039.1

Trade receivables

0.7

Cash and cash equivalents

11.3

Other assets

6.8

Transfer to assets held for sale

1,057.9

Provisions

2.1

Non-derivative financial liabilities

200.5

Deferred tax liabilities

160.8

Other liabilities

2.3

Transfer to liabilities associated with assets classified as held for sale

365.7

The assets held for sale also include properties totaling € 302.6 million (Dec. 31, 2020: € 164.9 million) for which notarized purchase contracts had already been signed as of the reporting date.