New figures show that property prices in Germany have risen significantly over the past year.
The latest data released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), reveal that house prices in Germany were 5.2 per cent higher at the end of the second quarter of 2019 than they had been at the end of the same period in 2018.
They were also 2 per cent higher than they had been at the end of the first quarter,
The price rises were particularly sharp in the country’s major cities. In Germany’s seven largest cities — Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Duesseldorf — prices for single-family and two-family houses increased by 10 per cent, followed by condominiums by 8.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, in other cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, prices for houses and condominiums increased by around 7 per cent, while prices in rural areas increased by only 4.2 per cent.
However, home ownership in Germany is still not as common as it is in many other European countries.
The Destatis figures show that 48 per cent of German households owned at least one property at the beginning of 2018. Single-family houses were the most common type of owned property at 31 per cent.
Despite long-term low interest rates in the country, the proportion of German households that currently own property is still at the same level as in 2008, the year the global financial crisis began.
Article published 1st October 2019