A FUTURE-ORIENTED RETROSPECTIVE

110 Years of AENGEVELT – 110 Years of Real Estate Innovations

The company was established on 1 April 1910 by Leo Aengevelt, father of Willi Aengevelt, who was the company’s personally liable shareholder until he passed away in 2006 at the age of 95. Willi Aengevelt himself joined the company on 1 April 1928 and became the company manager in 1936 at the age of only 24. His sons, Dr Lutz Aengevelt and Dr Wulff Aengevelt, joined the company in 1965 and in 1969, respectively, representing the third generation. It was also in 1969 that the one-man business was transformed into the “AENGEVELT IMMOBILIEN KG” partnership. In November 2003, the long-term restructuring to AENGEVELT IMMOBILIEN GmbH & Co. KG took place. In 2015 and 2016, the fourth generation expanded the group of shareholders with Mark Aengevelt and Chiara Aengevelt. In 2017, Max Aengevelt joined the company as Head of International Desk, another member of the fourth generation.

AENGEVELT IMMOBILIEN During the Post-War-Period

During the company’s 100 year-long history, which was characterised by many historic events, innovation and their position at the top of properties development have always been the corporate guiding principles.

As a consequence, from 1945, AENGEVELT became very successfully involved in important matters regarding urban development, relocation and design, in particular in the city of Düsseldorf, where a huge number of land-use planning tasks had to be completed after the war. From 1947:

targeted involvement in the restructuring of the Düsseldorf city centre;

the Königsallee;
the enlargement of Schadowstraße, Immermannstraße and Corneliusstraße;
the reconstruction of the “Tucht-Insel”, including Hochstraße and Berliner Allee; and

the (re-)location of leading industrial and economic companies.

In 1955, Willi Aengevelt constructed the former company's headquarters on a bomb-damaged site based at the former Alleestraße 35 which is named Heinrich-Heine-Allee 35 today.

Constant Development as a Property Service Provider

At the end of the 1960s, AENGEVELT initiated the German variant of industrial park development, and during the 1970s the company established economic methods for the use of industrial and business areas which had become fallow land, and whose opportunities were not exploited to the full extent. During this period, the company also created the first commercial rental indices which were an absolute industry innovation. Since their conception, these indices have been continuously used and published.

Another industry innovation implemented at the beginning of the 1980s consisted of the continued scientific determination of representative purchase price indices for residential properties, such as one-family, multi-storey dwellings and owner-occupied, and in return on investment indices for residential, office and commercial buildings in the region of Düsseldorf. These indices were calculated in close cooperation with the Institut für Wohnungsrecht und Wohnungswirtschaft [Institute for Residential Law and Housing Industry] of the University of Cologne.

Today, the strictly private development and marketing method established by the company in 1979 for industrial real estate and trade locations without the need for taking up public funding is also considered an innovation. Within this framework, AENGEVELT also designed the economic instruments in terms of properties which are required for area preparation, contaminated site and demolition management, project preparation and complex project development. The company was able to successfully apply this procedure as a pilot project to two areas in the city of Langenfeld. Overall, a surface of approx. 731,000sqm was brokered, which led to the creation of approx. 2,000 workplaces in 85 different companies. Since 1983, this procedure has been referred to as “Langenfeld Model”. It is the only procedure for public-private partnerships which is mentioned in the first Federal Building Land Report as a financing model for private developments of private or public property.

High Level of Commitment in Networks for Estate Agents

Since 2017 AENGEVELT is now partner of CORFAC International: CORFAC International is a network of independent, entrepreneurial commercial real estate firms that collaborate to deliver top-quality service and expertise in 80 markets around the world.The members specialize in office, industrial, land and retail brokerage; tenant and landlord representation; investment sales; multifamily; self-storage; acquisitions and dispositions; property management; and corporate services. In 2018, CORFAC offices completed more than 10,000 lease and sales transactions totaling 620 million square feet of space valued in excess of $8.2 billion USD.

In Germany, too, AENGEVELT decided to combine significant synergies, and as early as 1988 the company and three other important estate agents established the strongest-selling estate agent association in Germany, DIP Deutsche Immobilien-Partner. Today, this association is considered to be another industry innovation.

Contact for the Properties Market in the New German Federal States

On the occasion of the 1989/1990 turn of the year, AENGEVELT made the most of the opportunities resulting from the fall of the Berlin Wall, by being the first West-German estate agent to open a branch office in Berlin. In August 1990, the company published the first comprehensive market report in the history of the Berlin properties market. For this purpose, AENGEVELT commissioned comprehensive primary surveys in the eastern part of the city. They also commissioned the Humboldt University of Berlin with the exact collection and determination of office building areas in East Berlin. Up to this point, the size of these areas had only been roughly estimated.

At the 1990/1991 turn of the year, AENGVELT/DIP were then commissioned by Treuhandanstalt – an organisation responsible for privatising or, if this was not possible, closing publicly owned operations of the former German Democratic Republic – with the development of a utilisation method for existing buildings of former publicly-owned operations which were no longer needed for operational purposes. The company was able to make use of its experiences with the “Langenfeld Model” to fulfil this highly complex task. The result is generally referred to as the “Berlin Model” and also known as the “TLG Model” in the new German federal states. Subsequently, this model was put into practice by AENGEVELT and its DIP partners with great success through 82 national and international calls for tenders. This event is generally seen as the economic kick start of the property markets in East Berlin and in the new German federal states. Overall, investments of more than DM 18.6 billion and the creation and/or conservation of more than 78,000 work places were contractually secured on the basis of 400 notarised purchase agreements.

In the period from 1991 to 1996, the company continued to expand on a regular basis and established branch offices in:

Leipzig (1 October 1991)
Magdeburg (1 August 1992)
Moscow (1 March 1993)
Bonn (1 August 1995) and
Frankfurt am Main (1 May 1996)

In August 2009, AENGEVELT opened another branch office based in the city of Dresden.

Continued Education and Further Training with AENGEVELT IMMOBILIEN

AENGEVELT understood the significance of qualified education, considering the requirements for property consultancy services which continue to increase, right from the beginning . As a consequence, the company has been supporting and requiring its employees to participate in continuing education and further training initiatives for decades now. It also ensures that suitable teaching institutions are established and expanded. AENGEVELT is one of the initiators and founding donors of the professorship for Real Estate Economics at the ebs European Business School which was established in Wiesbaden in March 1993 and which is a course of studies of high standing. However, the company was also one of the founding donors and trustees of the IR/EBS University Foundation for Real Estate Economics at the University of Regensburg which was created in 2006.

One of the most experienced estate agents in Germany

Today, AENGEVELT has approx. 130 real estate experts as its employees, which makes it one of the largest and most experienced real estate service providers operating in Germany. The services portfolio which the company offers its customers ranges from the sale of private properties and investment objects, commercial rentals, brokering of undeveloped land and industrial and commercial objects to competent consultancy services and complex project development.

In addition, this product portfolio also includes exemplary research and reporting services which AENGEVELT provides on a continuous basis and which include ground-breaking comprehensive analysis and research activities with respect to different market segments. Ex-post assessments indicate that these analyses and research activities show industry-related trends exactly and that they can be used as a detailed information basis for decision-making purposes.

In the fast-moving times of the internet, the future will bring increasing internationalisation of the markets and, as a consequence, increasing requirements as to real-estate consultancy services. This will probably lead to significant challenges. AENGEVELT is perfectly prepared:

In the course of continued professionalisation and customer service enhancement, AENGEVELT decided at the beginning of 2007 to introduce a company-wide quality management system which was certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 only one year later, in March 2008, and which has been certified since then every year without interruptions. As the first company in this industry in Germany, AENGEVELT successfully completed the auditing process with respect to compliance management in the real-estate industry, established by Deutschen Immobilienwirtschaft e.V. within the framework of their Corporate Governance Initiative (ICG). The first audit was performed in 2010 and since then, it has been reaffirmed within the framework of re-certification processes without any interruptions.

In addition, AENGEVELT has an independent market research institute conduct an annual survey among its customers as to the level of satisfaction with the AENGEVELT services provided to them. This has the purpose of continuously enhancing the company’s product portfolio on the basis of these suggestions and criticisms.

In general, AENGEVELT is able to perfectly combine market experience which the company gained over decades with innovation and the company's unique quality mark. AENGEVELT serves the interests of its customers by being completely independent from any banks, insurance companies or any group of companies; this is unique in our industry.