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vdp property price index: German property prices rising still further

  • Multi-family houses: + 9.2%
  • owner-occupied housing + 6.1%
  • Office properties + 9.5%
  • retail properties + 2,5%

Prices for German residential and commercial properties continued on their clear upward trend in the third quarter of 2017. Calculated on the basis of real transaction data, between July and September 2017 the vdp property price index for the German market as a whole rose by 7.7 percent compared with the corresponding quarter one year earlier. Surging by 9.2 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, the main price drivers were again the segments multi-family houses and offices.

“The sharp upward movement in prices for multi-family houses and office properties is an indication, above all, that the strong investor demand remains unbroken,” commented Jens Tolckmitt, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp). “The fact that buyers are currently accepting extremely low initial returns is due to the lack of alternative investment opportunities. In the real estate market, investors evidently expect the rise in prices and rents to continue, even though the price level is already high. Whether or not these expectations are fulfilled depends on a great many external factors, however, not least on monetary policy remaining expansionary and on a sustained friendly economic setting.”

Note

For details on how the individual market segments developed, and for all index data on the individual vdp property price indices (2003-2016) including charts and tables, please refer to the attached publication.