German housing prices up in Q3

By Bahattin Gonultas and Emir Yildirim

BERLIN (AA) - Germany’s housing prices surged 3.3% in the third quarter of the year versus the same quarter last year, rising for the fourth quarter in a row, statistics authority Destatis said Tuesday.

While Germany’s housing prices rose 1% versus the previous quarter, housing prices in the country have been falling since their peak in 2022.

Prices of single-family and two-family houses climbed 3.5%, and was up 3.2% specifically in sparsely populated rural areas.

Urban inhabitants paid 4.7% more for apartments, and buyers in large cities paid 5% more than in the previous quarter, the data showed.

Apartment prices rose 2.8% and single-family and two-family house prices increased 2.7% in Germany’s seven largest cities, namely Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Dusseldorf.

Alexander Kruger, chief economist at Hauck Aufhauser Lampe Privatbank, said in a recent statement that housing prices in Germany are normalizing after the declines in 2023–24, which points to a housing shortage, further affected by migration.

Kruger said the federal government should encourage construction and cut red tape to encourage more housing.