Real estate prices in Germany increasing rapidly, analysis finds

Frankfurt (dpa) – Flats and houses in Germany are still becoming more expensive, even after 10 years of a boom in real estate.

The price increase continued unabated in the third quarter of 2019, according to an analysis carried out for dpa by the GEWOS institute.

It found that the price for flats rose by 8.2 per cent from the same quarter last year, to reach an average of 2,030 euros (2,274 dollars) per square metre. The increase was unrelenting for the third year in a row, said GEWOS manager Carolin Wandzik.

In the capital Berlin and the cities of Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf, the asking prices for flats even rose by 9 per cent.

“Also in the seven biggest German cities, no levelling off of the momentum can be seen,” Wandzik said.

The gap between prices and rents is growing larger: the rents listed in new contracts grew on average by 3.7 per cent.

The asking prices for houses, meanwhile, grew by 7.4 per cent to reach 2,670 euros per square metre on average. In the seven largest cities, they reached as high as 6,100 euros per square metre.

The GEWOS analysis is based on 30-year-old real estate offered for sale on the website Immobilienscout24. It looked at a two-bedroom 80-square-metre flat, as well as houses with 130 square metres.

Real estate prices in Germany rose by almost 50 per cent between 2008 and 2018, according to recent data by the Federal Statistical Office. The increase has accelerated since 2015.