During 2021, Avara’s assets under management grew more than ever before. Avara’s own new construction progressed as planned and in line with the pace of the previous year. In addition, we kicked off the construction of several new investments in the funds focusing on non-subsidised and affordable, subsidised housing. The value of assets under management increased to over EUR 1.5 billion, and the number of apartments in the funds increased to 8,500 residential units. By the end of the year, there were 1,069 new Avara homes under construction or completed during the year. A significant number of new projects are based on Avara’s own real estate development.
Concrete new steps towards achieving carbon neutrality targets
In 2021, Avara took several concrete steps towards reducing our carbon footprint. Avara kicked off property and area development projects in which energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy will rise to a completely new level. The most significant example of this is the apartment building complex being developed in Finnoo, Espoo, which will use a geothermal local heating network as its energy solution. This medium-deep heat well and the local energy solution to be built around it will be the first of their kind in Finland.
Towards the end of the year, Avara decided that all new future residential buildings will be energy class A buildings. In practice, this means that increased attention will be paid to the optimisation of the ventilation and heating of buildings, airtightness, more insulating windows and water consumption.
We completed our first carbon neutrality roadmap during the year, with the aim of achieving the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment by 2030. In order to achieve the target of carbon neutrality, we will continue significant work to improve the energy efficiency of the real estate assets and increase the share of renewable energy,” says Mika Savolainen, CEO of Avara.
Successes in improving the customer experience
Avara’s customer satisfaction surveys prove that Avara has succeeded in improving the company’s service significantly year-on-year. In the field of property management services, the impact of the development measures taken was visible in the form of a clear increase in customer satisfaction. With regards to investor customers, Avara exceeded the set goals and achieved the best NPS score in its history.
It is particularly important for customer satisfaction to continue to develop in a better direction and for us to be able to reach our targets. We can achieve this by serving our customers according to our planned model – in a centralised, fluent, efficient and friendly manner,” says Savolainen.
Avara's fifth GRI Sustainability report
Avara has developed its sustainability reporting gradually, while responsibility is increasingly integrated in the business and strategy. The report now published is the fifth in a row and its reporting model is based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.
Avara's corporate responsibility report 2021 can be found in Finnish and English at:
https://www.avara.fi/sustainability
https://www.avara.fi/vastuullisuus
Additional information:
Mika Savolainen
tel. +358 (0)40 098 6526
mika.savolainen@avara.fi
