Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our call on the preliminary figures for 2024. I'm joined by members of our team. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you about the transmission of this event. As mentioned in the invitation, please join either via the webcast link or by phone. As always, active participation in the Q&A session is only possible by phone. But we -- before we move on to the Q&A, let's start with the presentation and a short review of the preliminary key figures as of December 2024.
The year 2024 was once again characterized by of all challenging market environment. Yes, despite a stagnating economy with inflation and interest -- inflation interest rate, Hamborner successfully maintained a solid operational performance, and recognized a largely stable development in both revenue and earnings. Compared to the year 2023, income from rents and leases increased by 2.0% to EUR 93 million. The change is primarily driven by rent increases through indexation and property additions in 2023.
The positive rent development was offset by an increased cost base, which led to a decline in funds from operations by 5.5% to EUR 51.6 million. The corresponding FFO per share was $0.63. We saw a slight decrease in the NAV per share, resulting in particular from the impairment of the property portfolio as part of the regular year-end valuation. Although last year has been, as pointed out challenging, we remain in a solid financial and operational position.
Let's now go into detail and first take a look at the portfolio development. On this slide, you'll find the bridge illustrating the portfolio development in 2024. It reflects the impact of a property disposal as well the -- as the external portfolio revaluation conducted once again by our external appraiser, Jones Lang LaSalle. Following the negative value development in 2023, which was mainly due to the changed interest rate environment, the latest revaluation showed a stabilization of fair values.
On a like-for-like basis, the market value of our real estate portfolio decreased by EUR 28.2 million or 1.9% to approximately EUR 1.44 billion. Developments in the office and retail sub portfolios were almost identical at 2% and 1.8%, respectively. The consolidation is mainly a result of the stabilization of the inflation and interest rate environment as well as an emerging recovery of the transaction markets in Germany.
As in the past, our solid tenant base, including the renowned companies focused on local supply as well as stable office tenants contributed to the overall stability of our portfolio. Additionally, further indexation effects have played a supporting role in the revaluation process.
And we remain confident in the quality and resilience of the property portfolio. And currently, do not expect any significant further value adjustment for the current financial year. As announced in connection with our latest releases, Hamborner has been more active on the disposal side during the last month. As part of our active portfolio management, we sold 2 smaller office assets in Hamburg and Osnabrück, with a total sales volume of EUR 14.5 million.
The disposal decision was significantly influenced by the size of the properties and individual location perspective. While the Hamburg office disposal has already been closed in December, we expect the Osnabrück property to be transferred at the end of the first quarter. In addition to the 2 offices, we were able to sign the sales contract for our last remaining high-street asset in Lübeck. The property is an inner-city shopping center that Hamborner acquired in 2016.
The selling price amounts to approximately EUR 20.9 million and is approximately at the level of the most recently determined market value. With the signing of the purchase agreement, the company has finished its high-street sales activities and is now focusing more strongly on retail properties with a local supply character.
Within the next days, we expect the signing of a sales contract for another retail property. We intend to reinvest the sales proceeds as quickly as possible and are continuously examining acquisition opportunities here in both the office and retail property markets.
By the end of 2024, our annualized rental income recorded a like-for-like increase of 1.4%, primarily driven by index adjustment. The positive indexation effects were partly offset by slightly lower rent levels on the reletting side. Overall, our annualized rental income amounted to EUR 90.8 million as at the end of December.
On the next slide, let's take a closer look at the preliminary earnings situation. As mentioned earlier, the top line figure grew by 2.1% to EUR 93 million. As already indicated over the last quarters, maintenance expenses rose significantly in the past year to around EUR 10.1 million. This corresponds to an increase of 21%, which is attributable to higher ongoing expenses and numerous projects, as well as the postponement of several measures originally scheduled for the year 2023.
Administrative expenses also increased by roughly 20%. The increase is primarily driven by higher software license fees associated with the implementation of our digitalization strategy. Other operating income declined by approximately EUR 300,000 or 17.5%. As in the previous year, the figure is influenced by compensation payments for early lease terminations, which amounted to approximately EUR 800,000.
Compared to our P&L, the FFO calculation includes adjustments in connection with impairment reversals, in connection with value write-ups for 2 retail properties in an amount of EUR 3.9 million. The corresponding amount was adjusted with other operating income. The slight increase of 1.5% in interest expenses was mainly driven by the refinancing of loans at higher interest rates.
At the same time, declining deposit rates in the second half of the year led to lower interest income, which amounted to approximately EUR 1.5 million in 2024. All in all, funds from operations totaled to EUR 51.6 million, a slight reduction of 5.5% year-on-year. Compared to previous year, we saw an increase in CapEx, partly caused by an extension on the area of our retail property in Kempten.
Next slide, we would like to provide a more detailed overview on our expected maintenance expenses, irrespective of the postponement of measures from 2023, which led to higher costs last year. We are currently assuming a trend towards increased maintenance expenses for both the current and subsequent years. The expected development is due in particular to increased ongoing maintenance costs, higher expenses in connection with the rental activities and also additional costs for decarbonization measures.
For 2025, we expect total maintenance expenses in an amount between EUR 10.4 million and EUR 11.6 million. With around EUR 500,000, the amount we spent for additional pure decarbonization measures was -- for additional pure decarbonization measures was limited in the last year. For 2025, we expect comparable amount in a range between EUR 400,000 and EUR 800,000.
And yes, as we continue to pursue ambitions -- ambitious decarbonization targets, and aim to reduce the energy-related emissions within our portfolio by 50% until 2030, we intend to gradually increase our investments in the following years and currently assume additional costs between EUR 2.5 million and EUR 5 million. Due to existing accounting regulations, we expect that the majority of the costs will be recognized in our P&L and the amount of CapEx will be correspondingly lower.
The planned measures relate, among others, to the conversion of the energy supply to renewable energies and further optimization of technical building infrastructure. Context, continued intensification of the tenant dialogue and the increasing number of green lease agreements is necessary, and we will be addressing these issues more intensely in the coming months.
Now let's have a short look at the most important portfolio KPIs, as the transfer of ownership of the property in Hamburg already took place in December, our property portfolio consisted of 66 properties as at the end of 2024. Despite the still challenging operational market conditions, we saw a stable development of the EPRA vacancy rate, which remained at a consistently low level at 2.8%.
Total portfolio WALT fell -- declined over the course of the year and stood at 5.8 years as at the end of December. The terms within the retail and office portfolio amounted to 7.0 and 4.3 years, respectively.
As you can see on the next slide, in the 2024 financial year, numerous rental successes were achieved and contracts for rental space of approximately 49,000 square meter were signed. Around 50% of the contract volume -- contract volume was attributable to the letting of office space. As around 1/3 of the signings were new lettings, the retention rate amounted to 67%.
Looking forward with only 4.8% of total annual rents, the amount of expiring leases in the current financial year is quite limited. The largely stable development of the operation business is also reflected in our tenant structure due to the limited letting task and transaction activities in the past year, the effect on the top tenant list as well as the sector distribution is very limited. We only saw minor changes in connection with indexation effect in the course of the year.
Yes. So Hamborner tenant structure, as we think, remains highly solid and reliable, and a significant portion of rental income is generated by companies from the food sector here. They are still contributing approximately 1/3 of the company's rental income.
Let's now take a look at the company's financial situation. Looking back at the limited refinancing needs and investment activities in the 2024 financial year, our financial liabilities saw only a slight change, decreasing to EUR 681 million at the end of the year. At the same time, the average interest costs remain at a very low level of 1.9%.
The average remaining loan term has decreased from 1.4 years in 2023 to 3.3 years in 2024, influenced by the dividend payment as well as the portfolio valuation, LTV slightly increased over the course of the year to 43.7%. With 55.2%, the REIT equity ratio remained at a consistently high level.
Further debt-related KPIs as net debt to EBITDA and EBITDA versus interest coverage also developed stable and amounted to 9.8 and 5.4, respectively. I look at the expiry table for 2024, shows that we will only be faced with minor refinancing task in the coming months. And apart from the outstanding bonded loan with a remaining volume of EUR 12.5 million, which, by the way, we will repay at the end of the first quarter, only 2 loan agreements with a total volume of around EUR 22.5 million will expire in the course -- in the course here of this year.
As the vast majority of expiring liabilities will be due for refinancing at the end of this year, the relevant cost effects will be limited, very, very limited. A further reduction of financial liabilities and interest costs results from the announced property sales. As we intend to repay the associated loans after closing of transaction processes, we currently assume that interest expenses will further decrease over the next month.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me now conclude the presentation with an outlook. In view of the stable operating business performance in the 2024 financial year, we intend to propose to this year's AGM, the distribution of dividend at previous year's level of EUR 0.48 per share. This would correspond to a payout ratio of approximately 76% and based on the current share price to a dividend yield of around 7.7%.
Regarding the expected business development for the current year, we expect rental income in a range between EUR 87.5 million and EUR 89 million and an FFO between EUR 44 million and EUR 46 million. The expected decrease compared to the previous year is primarily related to latest property disposals as well as the expected signing of the further sales contract.
As the timing and volume of any potential reinvestment of the sales proceeds as well as the resulting positive effects are currently difficult to predict. We did not include potential property acquisitions or disposals into our forecast. In addition to the effect of the property disposals, the earnings development in the current year will be influenced by increased costs. Besides the maintenance expenses, already described, these relate to personnel and administration as well as other operating expenses.
The cost increases in the areas of maintenance, personnel and administration are expected to be between 10% and 20% in the 2025 financial year. We currently assume a higher percentage increase on the level of other operating expenses, mainly in connection with the ongoing implementation of regulatory and strategic projects. The increased other operating costs are partly attributable to one-off effects.
We currently assume that we will also have higher costs in the medium term, especially for maintenance, personnel, administration and interest, we will review our dividend policy in close cooperation with the Supervisory Board in the next weeks and if necessary, adjust to -- adjust our distribution strategy. Without preempting pending discussions, we might focus more closely on the expected FFO development and other practice such as, for example, our investment strategy as well as the overall market environment and formulating future dividend proposals. At the same time, the company clearly intends to continue to distribute an attractive dividend to its shareholders.
And with this, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to end the presentation and move on to the Q&A.
