"You can't change the world with a hobby, but you can change the world with a new lifestyle"

Particularly strong increase in expensive cities

Between 2011 and 2016, the average price of building land for owner-occupied homes across Germany rose by 27 per cent from 129 euros per square metre to 164 euros. In the major cities, the price per square metre of building land rose by 33 per cent - from just over EUR 250 in 2011 to just under EUR 350 in 2016. This not only makes residential property significantly more expensive, but also puts the brakes on affordable rental housing construction. This is the result of an analysis by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).

The analysis is based on purchase price data from the official expert committees for property values for the last five years. In the urban and rural districts, the price level and increase lagged behind the major cities. However, even there the increase was well above the general rate of inflation. In the urban districts - often districts surrounding large cities - purchase prices for undeveloped land rose from 132 euros per square metre in 2011 to 156 euros per square metre in 2016 (+19 per cent), while in the rural districts, the price per square metre of building land rose from 64 euros to 78 euros in 2016 (+20 per cent).

The average purchase price for a plot of land for owner-occupied development also rose significantly - by 27 per cent to EUR 112,000 in 2016. In the major cities, the average purchase price for a plot of land for owner-occupied development was just under EUR 200,000 (+ 25 per cent). Average purchase prices have risen particularly sharply in expensive cities. "Rising land prices determine the purchase or construction costs to a considerable extent, especially in the growth regions. This makes residential property more expensive," says BBSR expert Matthias Waltersbacher. "In tight markets, high building land prices are also driving rents for new builds up to EUR 14 to 16 per square metre. This means that privately financed residential construction at affordable rents is no longer possible."

While the transaction figures for plots of land for owner-occupier development remained fairly stable in the urban districts between 2011 and 2016, they fell by 30 per cent in the major cities. Transactions fell particularly sharply in expensive cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. Rural districts recorded an increase of just under 15 per cent in the same period. "Property prices have recently risen so sharply that the pressure to realise them often no longer allows for the development of single-family homes," says Waltersbacher. "More and more buyers are looking for alternatives in the surrounding area."

The analysis is based on an examination of the independent cities and rural districts for which transaction data for properties is available via the purchase price collections of the expert committees for property values in a complete time series since 2011. This representative longitudinal section covers around a third of all cities and districts in Germany. A comprehensive analysis of the land and property market for the years 2015 and 2016 will be presented by the Working Group of the Higher Expert Committees, Central Offices and Expert Committees in the Federal Republic of Germany (AK OGA) in December 2017 with the German Property Market Report.

Download the analysis:
To the pdf download

Keywords:
Construction and operating costs, DE-News, Media, New books and studies, Economics