Investors are speculating on an unchanged strong boom in the housing market and are therefore paying record prices for multi-family houses. According to the Office for Statistics on Friday, prices for residential real estate in Germany rose by almost eleven percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. Such a price increase had never been seen "since the beginning of the time series in 2000".

The prices of detached and semi-detached houses in the major German cities - Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf - rose even more sharply than those of houses: by an average of 14.7 percent. For a condominium, 12.9 percent more money was due than a year ago.

The average prices of apartments and detached and semi-detached houses across Germany did not rise quite as sharply: buyers had to pay 3.7 percent more for these properties than in the same period a year ago.

According to the Office of Statistics, the price increase in the housing market affected not only cities, but also rural regions. In sparsely populated rural districts, the increase in house prices was 11.8 percent compared to the second quarter of last year, while apartments became 9.2 percent more expensive.

In Berlin, prices for building land have also risen sharply again: As determined by the expert committee for land values on the basis of the concluded purchase contracts, the increase at the end of June was 26 percent compared to the first of January this year. While in good locations all eight underlying purchase contracts showed prices between nine and 73 percent higher than for comparable properties at the beginning of the year, the ranges in simple locations were between minus 26 and plus 89 percent, and in medium locations between minus 29 and plus 86 percent.

Image by Valentin J-W