Bouwinvest’s internal organisation

The year 2023 saw a more structural return of working in the office and a further shift in our hybrid working model from relatively more time working from home to more time in the office. Our Amsterdam office is designed for working together and cooperating within and across teams, so consistent working at the office is deemed essential.

Labour market conditions changed over 2023 and finding candidates for some roles became slightly less problematic than in the previous years. The company’s Real Value for Life purpose, its revised corporate strategy,its ambitious leadership and the way Bouwinvest conducts business has helped to attract talented new employees. This in combination with increased focus on recruitment resulted in us reaching our formation (FTE) targets by mid-year and actually having to quickly cut back in temporary staff as income dropped in 2023 and cost focus became more critical.

Growing management organisation 

Bouwinvest acquired properties worth € 715 million in 2023 and mostly due to the negative capital growth and disposals the invested capital decreased by € 0.7 billion to € 15.2 billion. Entrusted capital decreased by almost € 0.9 billion to € 18.1 billion. Despite this decrease in invested capital the management organisation is seeing steady growth in workforce, partly driven by the increased workload deriving from compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. In 2023, the workforce increased by 40 new employees (37.6 FTEs) while 19 employees (18.2 FTEs) left the organisation, representing a turnover rate of 7.7%. This turnover rate is relatively low for an organisation in transition, and Bouwinvest sees this as a healthy development. At year-end 2023, Bouwinvest had 230.2 FTEs (2022: 209.8 FTEs), slightly below the target formation ( 231.9 FTE).

HR Strategy 

Bouwinvest's HR strategy is based on providing the talent and resources that are required to execute the corporate strategy, the annual business plan and especially the fund- and mandate strategies on behalf of our clients. This is achieved by creating a workplace environment in which employees can perform optimally, develop themselves and excel in their roles. We strive to develop an environment of trust, respect and open communication, and encourage employees to take responsibility for results and outcomes as opposed to simply executing tasks. The HR department works closely with the various departments across the organisation to understand what is required from a resourcing and talent perspective and to ensure that this is in place. We invest in employee development, believing that growth and career development increases ability and commitment to achieving strategic goals and delivering top performance. We recognize and reward excellent performance with an integral and transparent performance & rewards policy and career perspective. This contributes to our shared goal and ambitions. 

Remuneration policy 

Bouwinvest has a remuneration policy for its employees, with few variable (performance-related) components, appropriate to its purpose and within the guidelines set by the regulatory bodies (DNB/AFM). Bouwinvest has a separate renumeration policy for the Management Board. Bouwinvest follows the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. 

Total staff remuneration of employees with permanent contracts at Bouwinvest, including salaries, social security charges and pension contributions, amounted to € 32.7 million in 2023 (2022: € 28.9 million). Personnel costs per FTE increased from €137.6 thousand in 2022 to €142.2 thousand in 2023 due to an indexation of salaries per 1 July 2023 and regular annual salary increases.

An increase in staff remuneration was mainly due to the increase in staff numbers from 210 FTE year-end 2022 to 230 FTE year-end 2023. The variable remuneration amounted to € 0.6 million in 2023 (2022: € 1.2 million) and the costs of hiring temporary staff came in at € 3.9 million (2022: € 2.6 million).

In total 52% of employees qualify for variable remuneration of a maximum of 4% of their gross annual base salary, based on the organisation’s collective performance targets. As a result of not achieving these collective targets, the collective variable remuneration was not granted. Individual performance targets have been agreed with the remaining 48% to the more senior positions and management. These employees have total variable remuneration maximised at 10% of their gross annual base salary. The Management Board bears primary responsibility for the remuneration policy.

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Staff remuneration based on AIFMD remuneration rules

Bouwinvest works on the basis of an AIFMD licence. Below is the total amount of remuneration Bouwinvest paid out to its staff over the year as a whole, divided into fixed and variable income.

Identified staff 

The aggregate amount of the remuneration at Bouwinvest, divided into the highest levels of senior management and the identified staff members whose actions have a significant impact on the risk profile of the investment entity, is given below. In 2023, 31.8 FTEs qualified as identified staff (2022: 29.3 FTEs).

An explanation of the remuneration of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board is included in the Remuneration report on page 57. 

Taxation

Legal changes

From 1 January 2025, Fiscal Investment Institutions (FIIs) may no longer invest in directly-held real estate. This measure implies that, without change, the Bouwinvest funds that still qualify as FIIs will become subject to corporate income tax at the normal rate (25,8% in 2024).

Bouwinvest has been anticipating this measure and converted the Office Fund and the Healthcare Fund into closed Funds for Mutual Account (FMA’s) on 1 January 2023 and 1 January 2024 respectively. The fiscal transparency of the FMA prevents double taxation for investors. The Residential Fund, Retail Fund and Hotel Fund will be converted in FMA’s on 31 December 2024.

The new law also introduced a conditional exemption from real estate transfer tax for shareholders with a so-called substantial interest (>=33⅓%). These investors will need this exemption upon the restructuring of the Fund that is planned for 31 December 2024.

Data and technology 

As every year, Bouwinvest continued its journey to evolve regarding the use of data and technology. In 2023, training and knowledge sharing events were organised for heavy data users. Different strategic use cases were identified and realized, i.e. the Transaction Information System, whereby a geographical representation is available for Transaction Management to help them identify possible transactions for the Dutch funds quicker and better.

A Product Owner Data Management ad interim was recruited, to help evolve our data maturity. The focus in 2023 was on our data governance (i.e. data ownership) and our data dictionary (i.e. one source of truth for our definitions). This way we can advance our different business lines, by more quickly identifying, collecting, analysing and reporting needed data and information, regarding ESG for example.

Furthermore, a policy for the use of Generative AI was implemented, new systems were implemented (HR system, digital tenant checks, new interfacing system), and one core system was upgraded (BW/4HANA). Lastly, the fit gap assessment was started to be able to comply with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) per January 2025, and a Red Team attack was performed to test our cyber resilience, whereby the attackers did not reach their set goals.  

Community engagement and sponsoring 

As a real estate investor, Bouwinvest provides a roof over the heads of thousands of people by investing in inclusive and sustainable areas where people want to live now and in the future. We also want to go a step further via community engagement and sponsoring, based on the theme 'a roof over your head'.

Bouwinvest takes a conscientious approach in deciding whether or not to sponsor initiatives and engage in community projects that need an extra push. We are currently involved in two home-related charities, namely Stichting HomePlan (since 2014) and Museum Het Schip in Amsterdam (since 2018).

Bouwinvest also tries to help in a practical way when people find themselves without a home.  Since the war broke out in Ukraine, for example, Bouwinvest has provided housing for refugees - five units in Amsterdam and five in Utrecht. These homes were offered from 2022 until the end of 2023 to 10 Ukrainian families. The cost of the housing and furnishings were covered by the management company and Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors was invoiced for this by the Dutch Residential Fund every month. The occupants of these homes have now moved on and are either renting on their own or have been relocated elsewhere.

Environmental impact management organisation  

Bouwinvest aims to keep reducing the organisation’s CO₂ footprint and to shift the energy consumption of the head office, in cooperation with the owner, towards the Paris Proof standard of 70 kWh/m2 in the coming years. In 2023 head office energy use was 72 kWh/m2 compared to 129 kWh/m2 in 2022.