degewo AG is Berlin's largest municipal housing company, managing approximately 75,000 apartments across the city with over 1,300 employees. As a state-owned enterprise (Landeseigenes Unternehmen), degewo plays a central role in Berlin's strategy for affordable housing, neighbourhood development, and sustainable urban renewal.
For the smart city domain, degewo is a pioneer in applying digital technologies and smart building systems at scale across its residential portfolio. The company's Zukunftshaus (Future House) in Lankwitz was one of Berlin's first retrofitted smart apartment buildings, integrating energy management, smart metering, and tenant-facing digital services. More recently, the degewo Klimahaus in Treptow-Köpenick is a pilot project for climate-neutral residential construction using hybrid timber construction with a wooden façade across 112 apartments in an eight-storey building — setting new standards for sustainable building at scale.
degewo invests in digital tenant services, predictive maintenance for building systems, and energy-efficient retrofit programmes across its portfolio. The company is actively involved in Berlin's broader housing strategy, which aims to increase publicly owned housing stock and ensure affordable rents. Since 2012, Berlin has been buying back apartments from private landlords, and degewo is one of six state-owned housing companies managing over 330,000 apartments collectively.
The company collaborates with Technologiestiftung Berlin, InfraLab Berlin, and research institutions on pilot projects testing smart building technologies, digital property management, and climate-resilient construction methods for large-scale residential application.