Strong foundations, bright prospects

The Dutch residential market remained resilient in 2025, supported by strong rental demand and steady economic growth, creating favourable conditions for real estate investors. The shortage has further intensified following the implementation of the Affordable Rent Act, which placed part of the liberalised rental sector under mid-rental regulation. Since the Act’s implementation, the sale of rental homes has increased when tenants move out, particularly by landlords with only a few units who prefer to sell rather than continue renting due to less favorable tax treatment of private rental owners.

During 2025, inflation is stabilising, and interest rates are gradually returning to more normal levels. Overall, the residential real estate market outlook is positive, supporting the ARC Fund’s ongoing commitment to invest in high-quality, affordable and sustainable homes.

The Fund realised strong results throughout 2025, supported by these market conditions and disciplined portfolio management. We started the year with a changed management team, welcoming new Fund Director, Mark van der Wekken and new Portfolio Manager Dewi Anakram, further strengthening the Fund and supporting continued operational excellence. Furthermore, we received the MSCI European Property Investment Award 2024 for the best-performing residential specialist portfolio in the Netherlands. We are proud of this achievement, which reflects both the strength of our strategic approach and that of the broader Amvest platform, and we will continue to build on this momentum.  

Fund performance

Due to the continued housing shortage and increasing demand for affordable rental homes, the ARC Fund’s occupancy rate remained high at 98.4%. In addition, increasing investor appetite and a declining interest rate environment led to eight consecutive quarters of positive revaluation and the re-emergence of yield compression. We are proud to report a total fund return of 11.6%, with a dividend yield of 3.0%.

In 2025, we successfully executed several sales to strengthen the portfolio’s focus and performance, totalling €177 million. This was driven by a higher number of individual unit sales and a substantial amount of block sales.  

Within individual sales, we completed 108 transactions, up from 56 in the prior year. Block sales also performed well this year. We sold 10 assets for €137 million. We successfully used part of the funds from both our individual and block sales to decrease our redemption queue by 66%, from €375 million to €128 million.

Looking ahead, a selection of assets will remain available for block sale next year. However, the volume of block sales we execute will depend on our funding requirements for new acquisitions and investments in our existing portfolio. At the same time, we aim to increase the number of individual property sales, as these currently generate attractive profit margins.

Funding

In 2025, we noticed increased investor appetite among Dutch institutions for (new) rental homes. This environment enabled us to successfully raise €263 million in new equity during 2025, welcoming three new investors to the Fund alongside additional commitments from existing investors. In line with the Terms and Conditions of the Fund, 50% of all new equity has been used to meet outstanding redemption requests. The remainder will be used to fund the existing pipeline and to invest in new high-quality, affordable and sustainable projects.

Interest rates have become more favourable since 2024, while the trend for 2026 has become more uncertain.. We will continue to assess the attractiveness of debt financing to support the Fund’s strategic objectives.

We successfully secured our second green bond at a more favourable rate than our initial issuance. We used the proceeds to repay existing loans, reducing our loan-to-value ratio to 21.4% by year-end—a position that will support enhanced dividend yields in the coming year.

As a result, we are well-positioned through 2029, with no refinance obligations in the near future. In addition, Moody’s upgraded the ARC Fund’s credit rating to a Baa1 corporate rating with a stable outlook. The upgrade reflects the ARC Fund’s strong operational performance, effective debt management and a conservative financial policy focussed on using capital responsibly and maintaining sufficient liquidity.

Delivered and ongoing projects

During the year, we completed and added a total of 572 homes to the standing portfolio. In Amsterdam (The Sphinx), we delivered 89 units, in Diemen (Holland Park) 56 units, in Rotterdam (Clubhouse Boompjes) 342 units and in Voorburg (Damsigt – The Flow) 85 units.

Our investment focus remained robust: we continued to emphasise social impact and expanded community management to improve the quality of the living environment. Our project, The Sphinx, is a prime example of this approach. Within a single building, rental units from the ARC Fund are combined with nursing homes and Seasons apartments from the Amvest Living and Care Fund as well as childcare facilities. The scale of the development provides a solid foundation for offering additional services such as community management. Through projects like this, we can support a high quality living experience for residents across all stages of the residential lifecycle.

In 2025, we maintained our high tenant satisfaction score of 7.4, with outperforming the benchmark score of 7.3. In addition, we continued advancing the rollout and implementation of our customer success department, aimed at further enhancing the tenant experience and fostering a sense of community. We are making significant progress to optimise critical ‘moments of truth’ in the customer journey, in close collaboration with our external property managers.

Our hard pipeline consists of seven assets, totalling 1,080 units across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Haarlem. These projects will expand and rejuvenate the portfolio with high-quality residential units over the next three years, with a substantial number of units scheduled for delivery in 2026.

ESG performance

Sustainability continues to be an important part of our strategy, as evidenced by our Amvest Impact Framework, a set of sustainability standards that, along with financial return requirements, will guide future investment decisions. The Fund remains on track with its framework objectives. 

Additionally, we remain committed to achieving a Paris-proof portfolio by reducing our carbon emissions and energy intensity. With a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intensity of 14.6 kgCO_²/m²/yr, the ARC Fund ranks among the residential funds with the lowest intensity.

Furthermore, we maintained our GRESB score of 5 stars, reflecting our leadership in responsible investment practices and our commitment to drive positive impact. We have made significant progress in sustainability, while our focus remains on achieving our long-term objectives.

Outlook

2025 was a successful year for the ARC Fund. We delivered double-digit returns for the second consecutive year, sold several assets above book value and achieved four consecutive quarters of positive revaluation. While economic uncertainty remains due to geopolitical tensions, we are optimistic about 2026. We expect the favourable economic market conditions in the residential real estate market to persist, though momentum is easing.

In 2026, we will focus on securing new equity partners, progressing towards the completion of the  remaining redemptions and carrying out more individual sales. The completion of several ongoing projects will add high-quality, sustainable homes to our portfolio, positively impacting both rental income and our operational efficiency ratio. Combined with substantial new equity secured, this positions us well to acquire additional assets that enhance diversification, strengthen our ESG credentials and drive long-term value creation for our investors.