Berlin, 1 October 2020 – Condominium sales in the Rhine-Main region rebounded in 2019 after a brief lull in 2018. This is one of the findings of the 13th ACCENTRO Homeownership Report, which is based on the analysis of data provided by the property valuation committees of Germany’s 82 largest cities. Collectively, the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt and Offenbach am Main registered 7,434 condominium sales, 149 more than the year before. With the exception of Offenbach am Main, all major Rhine-Main area cities saw their sales transactions increase in the wake of the general upward trend in Germany. Sales figures in Frankfurt flatlined on the prior-year level (+0.99 percent), whereas Wiesbaden took the lead with an +8.17 percent growth in condominium sales. Revenues increased in all of the mentioned cities of the Rhine-Main region. Frankfurt topped the list with 1.59 billion euros in revenues from condominium sales. In the nationwide ranking of the “Big 7” cities, however, the year-on-year growth rate in Frankfurt am Main was the lowest (+0.02 percent). The ten year comparison among the “Big 7” cities for the years 2009 through 2019 shows that sales revenues in Frankfurt am Main (+171 percent) grew faster than in any other city except Berlin (+242 percent).

“The data of this year’s ACCENTRO Homeownership Report clearly show to what extent cities like Offenbach am Main, Mainz, Darmstadt and Wiesbaden benefit from Frankfurt’s proximity and appeal,” said Lars Schriewer, CEO of ACCENTRO Real Estate AG. “Many people work in Frankfurt but either cannot find a place to live there or prefer to live outside the city and commute back and forth to Frankfurt every day,” Schriewer elaborated.  

More New-Build Sales than the Previous Year, Figures Declining only in Offenbach

A closer look at the sales stats for new-build units reveals that, while all of the cities in the Rhine-Main region with the exception of Offenbach (-4.81 percent, 198 new-build units sold, rank 39) managed to gain in terms of the absolute number of sales, only Frankfurt (+5.96 percent, 1,528 new-build units sold, rank 4) and Mainz (+13.8 percent, 371 new-build units sold, rank 14) made it into the top group of the ranking. Wiesbaden (+55.77 percent, 243 new-build units sold) and Darmstadt (+33.59 percent, 175 new-build units sold) did not get past ranks 27 and 42, respectively. In terms of sales per 1,000 residents, which is another ratio mapping the attractiveness of a given region, Mainz (rank 19) is the region’s highest-scoring city, with 5.61 condominiums sold for every 1,000 residents.  

Rhine-Main Cities Count among Germany’s Priciest

Matching the picture of 2018, the five largest cities in the Rhine-Main region also counted among the most expensive in 2019 as far as condominiums go. The average price tag for an apartment in Frankfurt am Main was 421,254 euros, putting Germany's financial metropolis in third place in the national ranking. Wiesbaden made seventh place (321,892 euros) while Darmstadt placed twelfth (291,021 euros), Mainz thirteenth (286,705 euros) and Offenbach eighteenth (266,372 euros). While condominium prices in Frankfurt am Main softened by 0.96 percent, they continued to go up in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Mainz and Offenbach.

About the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report

This edition marks the thirteenth time that ACCENTRO Real Estate AG published its Homeownership Report. For the first time, the homeownership report was compiled in collaboration with the IW Economic Institute this year. The analysis is based on residential property sales transacted in all of Germany’s 82 major cities during the reporting year of 2019. 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 twelve years are also available online in the ACCENTRO database, and can be retrieved in the form of selective drilldowns: https://accentro.de/en/homeownership-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