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Old buildings in Berlin: New contract rents have fallen in 27 of the 50 most expensive cities
Photo: Schöning / imago images
After almost two years of stagnation, rents for new contracts in Germany are falling - albeit only minimally.
According to the latest data, they fell by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter.
This means that rents for new rentals have fallen in 27 of the 50 most expensive cities.
This is shown by the residential index of the research company F + B, which measures rent and price developments on the German real estate market.
According to F + B, the index is based on the supply data from more than 30 million properties throughout Germany.
According to the experts, the reasons for the decline in new lease rents are demographic developments.
Immigration is falling slightly, and a significantly higher death surplus must be expected.
The corona-related deaths are also significant here as a reinforcing factor.
Kempten in the Allgäu (minus 12.9 percent) recorded the sharpest decline in new rental agreements, followed by Wunstorf in Lower Saxony (minus 9.9 percent).
But also in Freiburg it went down by 5.6 percent.
Among the largest cities, the rents on new leases fell the most in Frankfurt am Main: the rent level there fell by 2.1 percent compared to the previous quarter.
"We have noticed that in the top 7 locations, especially in the fourth quarter of 2020, after the first lockdown, there was a significantly weaker rental dynamic," said F + B managing director Bernd Leutner.
In Berlin, too, the trend in new lease rents continued to ease.
The average new lease rent was even 6.4 percent lower than twelve months ago or 1.4 percent lower than in autumn 2020. The capital slipped into 126th place among the most expensive cities in the F + B index.
But there are also places where things continued to rise.
In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, for example, new lease rents rose by a whopping 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter.
In Rüsselsheim, F + B recorded an increase of 7.4 percent.
For the first time in two years, Munich has fallen below the 15,000 euro mark
In contrast to rents, the trend in purchase prices for real estate is clearly pointing upwards.
The prices for single-family houses (plus 0.7 percent) and condominiums (plus 0.6 percent) rose compared to the previous quarter.
"We are of the opinion that the ongoing corona pandemic with the second lockdown since December has generated a sustained surge in demand here," said Leutner.
Even the first bans on single-family construction, such as in Hamburg's northern district, could not change anything.
In Munich, however, a remarkable decline can be observed.
Prices for condominiums there fell by an average of two percent compared to the previous quarter.
In the prime locations in particular, things went slightly down: with a standardized maximum of 14,950 euros per square meter, the city fell below the 15,000 euros per square meter limit for the first time in two years - but it is still the most expensive in Germany.
On average, a condominium there costs around 7,000 euros per square meter.
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