– Close-of-the-window panic among tenants: The rising property prices are triggering fears that they will be late. A new study shows what you have to put down on average for a home.
Tenants’ desire for their own four walls is growing all the time. While a good 67 percent had this request two years ago, it is now 72 percent. “As great as the wish is, it seems to be difficult to implement: tenants panic at the closing time,” says Mirjam Mohr from the board of directors of the real estate finance broker Interhyp. “They fear that they will no longer be able to buy property in the tense market situation.”
Prices rise and rise
On the one hand, the supply of condominiums and single-family houses is limited, and on the other hand, prices continue to rise significantly. In the first half of 2021, the increase in purchase prices excluding additional costs for the more than 700,000 financings considered by Interhyp was on average 9.4 percent nationwide – and in absolute terms at 454,000 euros. With significantly higher prices in the big cities, with Munich still in the lead with an average of 799,000 euros.
In 2020, the average price was 415,000 euros – almost ten percent more than a year earlier. In the previous three years it had risen by an average of five percent a year. “For the whole year we expect a sustained high demand and high, rather rising prices on average,” said Mohr at the presentation of the current living space study by Interhyp.
“The prices are very high in some regions. However, the market is developing very differently from region to region.” She does not see a price bubble, and there are also “selective” price declines.
Most of them move in themselves
Two thirds of the current financings are for owner-occupiers, who are hardly affected by price changes unless they want to sell or loan their property. “In addition, the financing structures are still very solid, with high levels of equity and long fixed interest rates.”
But if you find a property and want to buy it, you not only have to pay more, you also have to bring more equity with you. According to information from Interhyp, the share increased from an average of 115,000 to 129,000 euros in the first half of the year compared to 2020. According to Mohr, a third of buyers rely on the support of families or friends. Otherwise, a third would have postponed the purchase according to their own statements.
Munich at the top
This source will probably remain important in view of the higher and further rising prices, especially in the seven German A cities Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart.
For Munich, Interhyp cites an average price of 799,000 euros for 2020, almost 30 percent more than in 2015. According to other studies, you have to put around 350,000 euros on the table for just 43 square meters in the Bavarian capital. Behind Munich, Frankfurt ranks 700,000 euros (plus 45 percent), ahead of Hamburg with 642,000 euros (plus 38 percent). By far in the end, Leipzig ranks 304,000 euros, an increase of eleven percent.
