BASF Puts Brakes on 3,300-Unit Housing Sale, Shifting Focus Back to Core Chemicals
Published on 07/26/2026 at 16:23 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
BASF has pulled the plug on a planned sale of 3,300 company-owned apartments, a decision that marks a sharp reversal from the deal it announced just four months ago. The German chemicals giant had originally intended to offload roughly 4,400 residential units held by its BASF Wohnen + Bauen subsidiary, with the bulk of those — 3,300 apartments — packaged as a single portfolio including buildings. The remaining 1,100 were individual condominiums. That bulk sale is now on ice, though the disposal of the individual units continues as planned.
The about-face comes as the company navigates a shifting interest-rate and real-estate landscape. Dr. Helmut Winterling, President of European Verbund Sites at BASF, said the market had become too volatile and uncertain to proceed on acceptable terms. "A sale that does not generate value is not an option for us," he explained. BASF had already been in talks with multiple prospective buyers, but those negotiations have now been suspended.
The move has drawn a sigh of relief from local politicians in Ludwigshafen, where the bulk of the housing stock is located. Mayor Klaus Blettner welcomed the decision, saying the city was "relieved for the time being" that BASF had halted the process, and called for stability for tenants after months of uncertainty. The about-face also defuses criticism from unions and state-level politicians who had opposed the sale from the outset. Johanna Coleman, managing director of BASF Wohnen, defended the company's communication throughout, arguing that BASF had been transparent about its intentions from the start and was now being equally open about the reversal.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BASF?
The housing portfolio remains substantial despite the pause. BASF Wohnen + Bauen still owns around 5,800 apartments in and around Ludwigshafen. The original sale plan had been framed as a way to sharpen focus on the core chemicals business and shore up competitiveness at the main Ludwigshafen site.
That core business is now in the spotlight for a different reason. BASF recently reported preliminary second-quarter EBITDA before special items of €2.4 billion, and the full segment breakdown — due later this month — will be the real test. Investors are particularly focused on the Chemicals and Materials divisions, which are heavily exposed to raw-material costs and global industrial demand. Cash flow is another key metric: preliminary figures already showed a decline in free cash flow as the company tied up more capital, and analysts will be watching inventory trends and full-year investment plans closely. For many retail investors, dividend security remains the central reason for holding BASF shares, making the cash-flow picture especially important.
The company has also been reshaping its portfolio in other ways. It completed the sale of its Coatings business to Carlyle in June, a deal that helped underpin a recent guidance upgrade for 2026. The new EBITDA target range of €6.9 billion to €7.7 billion will need to be supported by convincing order data from Europe, particularly as the VCI — Germany's chemical industry association — paints a mixed picture for the sector, with high energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty still weighing on the outlook.
On the charts, the stock closed Friday at €48.60, down 0.42% on the day but still up 9.39% year-to-date. The relative strength index sits at 51.0, a neutral reading that leaves room for a decisive move in either direction when the full half-year results land. The 50-day moving average at €49.17 is the next hurdle to the upside; a clean break above that level could open the path toward the 52-week high of €55.05. For now, the housing decision has done little to move the share price — but the earnings report at the end of July could change that.
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