Up until now, buying real estate in major eastern German cities has been comparatively inexpensive. But this seems to be changing more and more: In the past five years, purchase prices have risen sharply in many cities.
In Leipzig they more than doubled. In 2016, the median asking for a square meter was 1,320 euros, currently it is 2,950 euros. This corresponds to an increase of 123 percent – and thus more than in any other major German city. This is the result of an analysis by immowelt, for which the asking prices of condominiums (40 to 120 square meters, all years of construction) in the first half of 2016 were compared with 2021.
In Dresden, too, prices rose significantly: after a plus of 77 percent, an apartment now costs 3,110 euros per square meter. The high percentage increases are due on the one hand to the low starting value, but also to the increased demand due to immigration over the past five years. As a result, prices are also rising in other cities: Magdeburg (+81 percent), Jena (+78 percent) and Erfurt (+75 percent).
Expensive metropolises are becoming even more expensive
Although the large east German cities have seen huge price leaps behind them, the price level is still comparatively low. It looks completely different in the metropolises. After an increase of 75 percent, the square meter price for all apartments on offer in Berlin jumps to exactly the 5,000 euro mark. Especially after the rent cap was declared invalid and capital investors are increasingly interested in the capital again, prices are likely to continue to rise in the coming months and years.
It is doubtful whether Berlin will ever come close to the prices of Munich. Because despite record prices, the price curve in Munich continues to point upwards: In the past 5 years, the median price rose from 6,000 to 9,010 euros – an increase of 50 percent and, in absolute terms, the strongest growth of all major cities.
In Hamburg (+64 percent; 5,900 euros), Frankfurt (+79 percent; 6,570 euros) and Stuttgart (+51 percent; 5,190 euros), buyers have to spend significantly more money than they did in 2016.
Price doubling in smaller cities
Apart from Leipzig, the smaller cities have the highest price increases. The student city of Heidelberg is one of the most expensive cities in the republic with an increase of 118 percent and median purchase prices of 5,810 euros.
The same applies to Potsdam (+99 percent), which at 5,490 euros per square meter even exceeds the prices in Berlin. In both cities, high demand meets limited supply, so prices rise sharply – also due to the high level of new construction due to the high demand.
In Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia (+109 percent) and in Ludwigshafen in Rhineland-Palatinate (+103 percent), home ownership is twice as expensive as it was 5 years ago. However, the price level is significantly lower. In both cities, around 3,000 euros are required for the square meter.
The smallest increases can also be found in smaller cities: In Göttingen (+25 percent), Trier (+33 percent) and Oberhausen (+34 percent) the increases are comparatively small, but still clearly exceed the inflation rate of 8 percent the same period. (ots)
Calculation basis: The data basis for calculating the purchase prices were offers advertised on immowelt.de. Only offers that were increasingly in demand were taken into account. The prices are offer prices, not closing prices. The prices reflect the median of the apartments (40 to 120 square meters) offered on immowelt.de from January to June 2016 and 2021. The median is the mean value of the asking prices.
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