Juha Varis’s tweets about how Kojamo’s competitor Citycon got a great interest rate 
https://x.com/JuhaVaris/status/1907131710300381396
https://x.com/JuhaVaris/status/1907132552059424909
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It seems dollar investments are now canceled, and interest rate forecasts probably won’t help much either 
In my opinion, the companies are not competitors or comparables. If there’s enough headwind in residential real estate investing, then there’s even more on the commercial real estate side. Of course, Citycon also has apartments and Kojamo has commercial premises, but these are curiosities in the companies’ portfolios.
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Here’s a small personal follow-up, keeping tomorrow’s interim report in mind. Kojamo’s rough occupancy rate, based on the lumo.fi website, has developed suspiciously well (table below). I can’t guarantee that the site actually lists all available apartments or that the occupancy rate is correct. Based on the share price, someone else has finally done calculations, but the rise started so late in relation to the decrease in the number of listings that I suspect I’ve missed something.
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In my opinion, following KTI’s vacancy rates works well for estimating Kojamo’s occupancy rate. At the Finnish level, Kojamo owns a large portion of that professionally owned rental housing stock. Therefore, this is interesting data from Kojamo’s perspective, and these figures are released before Kojamo’s earnings report: KTI Residential Rent Indices: Vacancy in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area eased slightly, but rents turned to a gentle decline in the first quarter of the year | KTI Real Estate Information
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Occupancy rate still dismal (though at least slightly improving), financing costs and interest-bearing debt have both risen. Looks like we won’t be seeing those dividends for a while, boys.
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Next spring we will already see a “pity dividend”. To me, it’s a good sign that the occupancy rate rises towards spring, usually I guess it falls towards spring as graduating students give up their apartments(?)
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Rents are rising so much that it’s getting unbearable, and precisely where Kojamo’s apartments are.
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The article states, among other things, “The situation is similar in Multisilta, Tampere. There, the rents for studio apartments have risen by nearly 40 percent.” They certainly have. But the supply of studio apartments has also changed. At the end of the last decade, the supply largely consisted of units in 70s buildings without elevators. Now, at the turn of the decade, the supply changed considerably with the advent of new apartment buildings predominantly featuring studio apartments.
The same applies to some other neighborhoods in Tampere. For example, Tesoma’s building stock long consisted only of buildings from the 60s. In a few years, quite a few new tall apartment buildings have risen in the district, where the rent level is, of course, completely different from that of the 60s classics.
The rent level of the old building stock has probably not risen quite in line with the average in the neighborhoods.
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Same observation regarding Helsinki’s suburbs.
Having followed the rental market in East Helsinki for several years, one can say that the increase in rents is largely explained by the construction of new rental buildings. For Kojamo, rents for newer properties are typically about ~15% higher than for similarly sized older properties from private landlords.
Sato has more of that older stock in East Helsinki, and many buildings have undergone extensive basic renovations (HVAC, plumbing, electrical) in recent years, with asking prices also higher in these than for private landlords.
But this is how it should be. New developments must command better rents, and these larger operators generally have heavier cost structures and higher targets regarding rental levels.
Of course, this is positive from a landlord’s perspective. Rental levels haven’t really been able to be raised for a couple of years (yet), but rentability has remained good. All more affordable studios are rented out at a good pace, and there are fewer of these more affordable apartments available, at least in my own areas, than, for example, a year ago.
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A bit of real estate trading.
242 million euros debt-free purchase price for 1944 apartments, 80% outside the Helsinki metropolitan area to Americans. I.e., 125,000 eur/piece, not very much, but the story doesn’t tell the exact weighting of the sold portfolio.
Inside Information: Kojamo has agreed to sell 44 residential properties
Companies of the Kojamo Group have signed an agreement to sell 44 rental residential properties to funds managed by Apollo (NYSE: APO) and Avant Capital Partners for a debt-free purchase price of 242 million euros.
The transaction involves the sale of a total of 1,944 apartments in eight locations across Finland. The properties were mainly completed in the 1970s–2000s and are located in Jyväskylä, Lahti, Kuopio, Hämeenlinna, Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, and Espoo.
The transaction is conditional on the fulfillment of customary real estate transaction conditions. The parties aim to complete the transaction during summer 2025.
The sale of these non-strategic properties is in line with Kojamo’s current year’s targets.
“The transaction is a significant step for Kojamo. Nearly 80 percent of the properties included in the transaction are located outside the Helsinki metropolitan area. Kojamo’s investment strategy continues to focus on Finland’s largest cities,” states Ville Raitio, Business Director.
The annual revenue of the properties being sold is approximately 21 million euros. The company will disclose the impacts on its 2025 figures once the transaction is completed.
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When one tries to explain the eternal rise in prices of used apartments with this same phenomenon, it is generally denied??? Of course, new apartments do not immediately affect the prices of used ones, but after three years or one occupant, they become classified as used in statistics.
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Based on the 2024 financial statements, the realized purchase price is approximately 3% of Kojamo’s property value. However, measured by revenue, the sold properties account for 4.64% of Kojamo’s revenue.
Kojamo’s properties have a P/S ratio of 17.6, and the properties purchased from Kojamo have a P/S ratio of 11.52.
Calculation formulas
Share of Kojamo’s properties’ fair value →
(Value of sold properties / Fair value of Kojamo’s properties) * 100
= (242 m eur / 7960 m eur) * 100 = 3 %
Share of Kojamo’s revenue →
(Revenue of sold properties / Kojamo’s revenue) * 100
= (21 m eur / 452.4 m eur) * 100 = 4.64 %
Kojamo P/S →
Value of Kojamo’s properties / Revenue of properties
= 7960 m eur / 452.4 m eur = 17.6
P/S of sold properties →
Value of sold properties / Revenue of properties
= 242 m eur / 21 m eur = 11.52
From these figures, it is not possible to deduce the impact on net rental income, nor can it be known what potential repair debt or similar the sold properties have, but based on the aforementioned figures, it appears to be a cheap deal.
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I also think that if it had been a clearly good deal, surely more information would have been provided.
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Your text would fit well in the Coffee Room due to its general nature, but let’s put it here in the somewhat quiet Kojamo thread, because the text discussed Kojamo using it as an example. 
Kojamo announced on June 6th that it had sold apartment buildings for 242 million euros. A casual observer would have been greatly surprised and puzzled if it had also been disclosed what profit the deals were made with. Or even how it related to the balance sheet value.
The earnings impacts will reportedly be disclosed once the deal is finalized. Why is that, since they are already known now? A certain amount of net rents (known by those in the know) will be gone, and with this money, debt will be paid off, the cost of which is also known. In addition, there will be a one-time hit (my educated guess), and that is also known.
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In Multisilla, the housing cooperatives of apartment buildings built in the 1970s are also in reasonably original condition. Large family apartments are facing pipe renovations.
Ultimately, the cost of these will be passed on to rents. The area itself is one that neither residents nor the city have significantly developed.
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Kojamo has completed the previously announced sale of 44 residential properties for 242 million, of which 75 million will still be used for share buybacks. The rest will probably be used to smooth out the debt mountain.
Kojamo Plc Insider Information, 31 July 2025 at 12:10 p.m.
Insider Information: Kojamo Plc Initiates Share Buyback Program
The Board of Directors of Kojamo Plc (“Kojamo” or the “Company”) has decided to initiate Kojamo’s share buyback program based on the authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting held on 13 March 2025. The shares will be acquired to develop Kojamo’s capital structure by reducing equity.
According to the buyback program, a maximum of 7,000,000 Kojamo shares may be acquired, which corresponds to approximately 2.8 percent of all shares in the Company. A maximum of 75 million euros will be used for the share buyback. The shares will be acquired in public trading organized on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd’s regulated market at the market price at the time of acquisition. The acquisition of the Company’s own shares will be financed with the Company’s distributable equity.
The share buybacks will commence after the Company’s closed window on 22 August 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter, and will end no later than 6 March 2026. The repurchased shares will be cancelled.
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Residential properties are being sold at a higher valuation than the stock is currently trading (0.9x vs 0.6x compared to book value). One would think the stock would be under upward pressure if the market starts to believe that the balance sheet values are even in the same ballpark as fair values, as previous transactions suggest. Sales proceeds are used for debt reduction and share buybacks. This seems like a pretty no-brainer way to create value, although in my opinion, share buybacks could be pursued even more. Of course, reducing debt and thus improving solvency is in line with the strategy and presumably also creates significant value. I am pleased by the dividend cut to zero for this year, and it seems that a massive distribution of funds in the form of dividends is not being considered in the near future either. In Q1, it was stated that the proceeds from sold apartments would be used for debt reduction and share buybacks and/or dividend distribution. Now it was only announced that the proceeds would be used for debt reduction and share buybacks.
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This buyback program starts tomorrow. When talking about such a significant buyback program, from a technical perspective, this is clearly a factor that will boost the share price between August 22, 2025, and March 6, 2026. If those 7 million shares are divided by the stock exchange’s open days (133 pcs), we are talking about buying approximately 53,000 shares per day, which in turn is about 22% (!) of the average daily trading volume over the last 12 months (approx. 240,000 shares avg. daily volume).
With this in mind, it’s a bit surprising that Kojamo’s share price is down 6% precisely on the eve of the buyback program’s launch, especially since the earnings report wasn’t bad either. I personally would have waited until March 6, 2026, for sales, if I had any intention to sell 
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It should be noted here that a stock’s P/B ratio of, for example, 0.6 does not mean that the stock price values the properties at 60% of their book value, but higher. Therefore, debt must also be taken into account in the calculation. Currently, the stock price seems to value the properties at around >80% of their book value; if someone wishes, they can calculate it more precisely.
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