Berlin, 18 September 2018 – In the 82 major cities covered, a total of 125,821 existing and new-build condominiums changed hands in 2017. This implies a decline by 7,490 sales or 5.62 percent year on year. The drop in the number sales was particularly steep in Germany’s metropolises: In Stuttgart (-14.98 percent), Cologne (-13.64 percent), Hamburg (-12.54 percent), Frankfurt am Main (-12.54 percent) and Munich (-10.01 percent), the rates of decrease were in the double-digit range. This is one of the findings of the latest ACCENTRO Homeownership Report.

The total revenues from condominium sales, by contrast, decreased but slightly. A 1.32-percent decline to 30.13 billion euros means that the year-end total fell slightly short of the prior-year record of 30.87 billion euros. At 2.52 percent, sales in the “Big Seven” cities declined faster than the average across all major cities, Düsseldorf and Berlin being the only Class A cities to buck the trend. “The fact that total revenues more or less maintained last year’s level while the absolute number of sales went down suggests that a relatively stable demand coincides with rising condominium prices,” elaborated Jacopo Mingazzini, CEO of ACCENTRO Real Estate AG.

Residential Prices Keep Following Upward Trend

Although revenues and the absolute number of sales transactions are pointing down, condominium prices in major German cities continued to go up in 2017. The average selling price rose by 4.56 percent in 2017, down from a growth rate of 7.73 percent the previous year. Across the German cities covered by the survey, the average flat had a price tag of 239,493 euros in 2017.

Above-Average Price Hikes in the Metropolises

The metropolises, however, present a different picture as they registered above-average price hikes with the sole exception of Cologne. On average, selling prices in the “Big Seven” cities increased by 6.78 percent in 2017. Condominium prices showed a particularly brisk growth in Düsseldorf with 18.82 percent while revenue per sale in Hamburg went up by 13.17 percent. Revenue per sale in Berlin still followed an upward trend in 2017 (growing by 5.50 percent), yet this compares to a growth rate of 16.73 percent in 2016. In Cologne, by contrast, revenue per sale actually softened slightly in 2017. “The findings of this year’s survey confirm that construction activities cannot keep up with the sustained strong demand,” Mingazzini went on to say.

Evasive Action into the Greater Metro Areas

The short housing supply in the German metropolises, where rapid demographic growth coincides with sluggish construction activities, has increased the appeal of cities in the surrounding areas that boast an infrastructure which is equally sound. For instance, average selling prices in Offenbach undercut those of neighbouring Frankfurt by 42.16 percent, while prices in Bonn are 23.29 percent lower than in nearby Cologne. Between 2012 and 2017, average condominium prices in Offenbach increased by 90.71 percent, in Darmstadt by 68.06 percent, in Mainz by 61.20 percent and in Potsdam by 40.08 percent. The same is true for Heilbronn near Stuttgart (up 71.50 percent) or Lübeck near Hamburg (up 39.59 percent), meaning that all of these cities located within metro regions outperformed the urban average.

Supply Shortage Causing Dip in New-Build Condominium Sales

Out of 82 major cities covered, 49 registered a drop in the number of transactions involving new-build condominiums. The phenomenon was limited neither to certain regions nor to metropolises or Class B cities, but represented a nationwide trend. Only two of the metropolises reported a positive development of new-build condominium sales in 2017: Transaction figures in Düsseldorf, while lagging far behind those of 2016, went up by 7 percent, while those in Berlin increased by a marginal 1.84 percent. Transaction figures in other metropolises plummeted, for instance by 38.65 percent in Cologne, by 28.01 percent in Hamburg and by 27.18 percent in Munich.

About the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report

This year’s edition marks the eleventh time that ACCENTRO Real Estate AG published its Homeownership Report. The analysis is based on residential property sales transacted in all of Germany’s 82 major cities during the reporting year of 2017. The fact that is has access to the actual data of the surveyor committees sets this report distinctly apart from similar publications that tend to be based on expert assessments or the evaluation of quotes. Detailed findings of the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report on Germany’s “Big Seven” cities and the trends of the past ten years are also available online in the ACCENTRO database, and can be retrieved in selective drilldowns: Home Ownership Report

About ACCENTRO Real Estate AG

ACCENTRO Real Estate AG is a residential property investor and Germany’s market leader in housing privatisations. Its real estate portfolio consisted of around 5,200 units as of 31 December 2020. In addition to Berlin, regional focal points include East German cities and conurbations, as well as the Rhine-Ruhr metro region and Bavaria. The business activity of ACCENTRO comprises four core divisions. These are the tenant-sensitive retailing of condominiums to owner-occupiers and private buy-to-let investors, the sale of real estate portfolios to institutional investors, the set-up and management of a proprietary real estate portfolio, and third-party condominium marketing for property asset holders, investors and developers. The shares of ACCENTRO Real Estate AG are listed on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German securities code number WKN: A0KFKB, ISIN: DE000A0KFKB3). investors.accentro.de