Deutsche Wohnen launches its annual tenants’ survey
A key criterion at Deutsche Wohnen for evaluating the success of the company is the satisfaction of our tenants. This is why, starting today, the company is posting a survey to around 28,000 households Germany-wide, giving them the opportunity to report back on their experiences and suggestions. In this year’s survey, which is being conducted in partnership with the market research institute AktivBo GmbH, the households receiving the survey are in Frankfurt/Main, Mainz and Berlin-Steglitz. Deutsche Wohnen has conducted an annual tenants’ survey since 2019. With this year’s survey, which is now the fourth, a so-called full survey has been achieved, i.e. all the households across the entire holdings of Deutsche Wohnen have been consulted once.
As Lars Urbansky, co-CEO of Deutsche Wohnen SE, explains, “We would like to develop constantly as a company, and a key indicator of our development is the satisfaction of our tenants. This is why the tenants’ survey is of such great importance. It enables us to find out at first hand what we are doing well and where we have to improve. With the help of the feedback from our tenants we can continue to systematically develop and improve the service we provide and to do so in a way that is focussed. So, we are delighted to receive every survey that is returned to us and would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participate.”
The survey seeks feedback from the tenants on how satisfied they are with their own flat, the overall apartment block and its surroundings. In addition, information is sought about the level of service provided by Deutsche Wohnen, and the company’s quality of communication and reachability. Aside from these categories, tenants can express wishes and criticism, and provide information and suggestions, on topics of their choice.
During the past years, various wishes and suggestions that were expressed by our tenants in the surveys have been acted upon in practical ways. For example, the project “Bees find a home” enjoyed great resonance and has in the meantime been rolled out in several residential estates across Germany. And the programme “5,000 bike stands in 5 years” grew out of feedback provided in previous tenants’ surveys. The first steps have now been taken – starting with large-scale site visits through to selecting bike stand providers and different types of bike stand. Furthermore, Deutsche Wohnen has worked to improve the level of satisfaction of our tenants with our customer service, which includes continuing to develop our digital customer portal. In subsequent tenants’ surveys, these and other measures were overwhelmingly rated as positive and so have been able to contribute to tenant satisfaction.
For every questionnaire that is returned Deutsche Wohnen will donate one euro to social causes. The donation will go to local associations and organisations and so will benefit the tenants in Deutsche Wohnen’s estates. Last year, this meant that EUR 10,000 was donated to the campaign #sicherheim, which seeks to support the victims of domestic violence.
Deutsche Wohnen has commissioned AktivBo to conduct the tenants’ survey for the fourth time now. AktivBo is an independent institute providing analysis and consultancy. It was founded in 1991 and specialises in tenants’ surveys for the housing industry. This year too, the tenants have time until the middle of November 2022 to respond to the questions. The survey is anonymised in each case. This means that it is not possible to identify individual respondents on the basis of their responses.
Deutsche Wohnen
Deutsche Wohnen is one of the leading publicly listed property companies in Europe and is part of the Vonovia Group. The business focus of the company is on managing its own portfolio of residential properties in dynamic metropolitan regions and conurbations in Germany. Deutsche Wohnen sees itself as having both a social responsibility and a duty to maintain and newly develop good-quality and affordable housing in vibrant residential neighbourhoods. As at 30 June 2022, the portfolio comprised a total of around 142,600 units, of which 140,000 were residential and around 2,600 commercial.