Vonovia and Nokera agree on strategic partnership for the serial modernisation of buildings

Bochum/Möckern, April 14, 2026 – Vonovia, Europe’s leading housing company, and NOKERA, a technology-based construction business from Switzerland, have agreed on an initial strategic partnership for the large-scale energy-efficiency refurbishment of major residential estates. As part of this collaboration, large-scale refurbishment solutions will be implemented for part of Vonovia’s property portfolio.

The aim of the partnership is to upgrade the building stock for energy efficiency significantly faster and more efficiently – whilst simultaneously reducing costs, construction times and disruption for tenants.

At the heart of the concept is the industrial prefabrication of entire façade elements, which are assembled on site within a short timeframe. The construction system used for this is manufactured at the world’s largest production facility for serial construction in Möckern near Magdeburg.

“The energy-efficient transformation of the building stock is one of the major challenges of our time. With serial modernisation, we are optimising our processes. We are becoming more digital, we are becoming more efficient, we are industrialising and we are scaling up. In this way, we are contributing significantly to the energy transition and to improving the quality of life in our neighbourhoods,” says Luka Mucic, CEO of Vonovia.

NOKERA also sees the partnership as a decisive step towards taking building modernisation to a new industrial scale. “By closely integrating planning, production and installation, we can develop standardised façade solutions that can be efficiently applied to large housing estates. This makes energy-efficient modernisation scalable for the first time,” says Dr Ulrich Schwenken, CEO of NOKERA.

In addition to a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions, the focus is particularly on a substantial reduction in construction times. Thanks to the industrial production of entire façade elements, entire building structures can be modernised within a few days. This minimises disruption for tenants whilst enabling a significantly faster implementation of the energy transition.

The partners are already collaborating in two large neighbourhoods in Heidenheim and Langenfeld near Düsseldorf, comprising a total of 1,000 apartments. Based on the experience gained there, the concept will be extended to further housing stock.