Berlin, 24 September 2019 – With 18,885 residential units sold in 2018, Berlin remains the star performer on the German housing market. Runner-up, while trailing far behind, is Munich with 9,846 units sold. But among the “Big Seven” cities, the German capital also suffered the steepest decline in the number of condominiums sold after a drop by 11.66 percent (2017: 21,377 units). By contrast, condominium prices in Berlin rose by 21.83 percent last year, from an average of 263,966 euros (2017) to 321,578 euros. The total sales volume climbed to 6.07 billion euros (up from 5.64 billion euros in 2017). These are some of the findings of the twelfth ACCENTRO Homeownership Report (2019) for which the data of property valuation committees of the 82 largest German housing markets were analysed.  

Fast Price Growth in Berlin

With an increase by roughly one fifth, the price dynamics of Berlin clearly exceeded the national average of 6.82 percent. The only cities with yet faster growth rates were Halle, Reutlingen, Jena and Hildesheim. “In a ten-year comparison of Germany’s Big Seven cities, Berlin remains the metropolis with the fastest price growth. Since 2008, selling prices have gone up by 170.84 percent,” said Jacopo Mingazzini, CEO of ACCENTRO Real Estate AG. The second-fastest price growth among the Big Seven cities was registered in Munich with an increase by 8.02 percent. Düsseldorf was the only city among these that saw its prices soften (by 2.59 percent).  

Berlin Ranks Fifth in Terms of Revenue per Sale

Last year’s price hikes, which were well above the average, caused selling prices in Berlin to close in rapidly on the prices in other German metropolises. The associated average revenue per sale caused Berlin to move up from twelfth to fifth place. The cities where yet higher average prices are quoted are Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. As far as total revenues go, Berlin tops the list again because of its high number of sales, and is still well ahead of Munich. “For the longest time, Berlin’s housing market was deemed most affordable among Germany’s metropolises. The robust price dynamics of the past few years has to some extent closed the gap. That is why the total turnover was able to cross the mark of 6 billion euros for the first time, despite yet another dip in the number of units sold,” said Mingazzini.  

New-Build Condominium Sales Back in Decline

The number of new-build flats sold experienced a one-year decline by 21.24 percent as it dropped from 5,711 transactions in 2017 to 4,498 in 2018. This means that the trend reversed itself again after a modest increase between 2016 and 2017. Among the Big Seven cities, only Hamburg saw new-build condominium sales increase, reporting a 14.89-percent growth last year. Analogously, the number of residential units sold across Germany decreased by eleven percent. “Despite the decline in new-build transactions last year, Berlin as a location continues to generate strong demand. While the number of sales transactions in the other Big Seven dropped, it soared by 77.3 percent in Berlin over the same period of time. If the Senate of Berlin took measures to address the rising shortage in product and building land, the transaction figures would go right back up,” said Mingazzini.

About the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report

This year’s edition marks the twelfth 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 2018. A significant distinction that sets the report apart from similar publications, most of which rely on expert appraisals or on analyses of supply-side data, is that it draws on the data of the cities’ property valuation committees. Detailed findings of the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report on Germany’s ten most populous cities and the trends of the past eleven years are also available online in the ACCENTRO database, and can be retrieved in the form of 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