Berlin – If you want to rent a new apartment in Berlin, you have to pay significantly more than for an existing apartment. According to a study by the real estate portal Immoscout24, existing apartments in Berlin were offered on average for a square meter rent of 10.59 euros in the fourth quarter of last year, while new apartments should cost 14.41 euros per square meter cold.
A 70 square meter reference apartment in the existing stock would therefore cost 741 euros cold, for a new apartment of the same size, on the other hand, 1008 euros would have to be found cold. At Immoscout24, existing apartments include all apartments that are more than two years old. The rest are considered new builds. Asking rents published by Immoscout24 were included in the study. Important: Offer rents are not agreed rents. It is not clear at what rent the apartments were finally awarded.
According to Immoscout24, asking rents in Berlin rose by six percent last year. In new construction, an increase of 8.8 percent was even recorded. This means that rents in the German capital rose more in both segments than in the other six major German cities of Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Düsseldorf.
Demand exceeds supply
Newly built apartments are only more expensive in Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart than in Berlin. Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf, on the other hand, have a lower price level. For existing apartments, on the other hand, asking rents are more expensive in most cities than in Berlin. Only Düsseldorf is cheaper than the federal capital. Munich is and will remain the leader when it comes to the most expensive rents. Existing apartments were offered on the Isar last year for an average of 16.27 euros per square meter, new apartments should cost 18.95 euros per square meter.
“Rent prices in the metropolises increased again last year,” says Immoscout24 Managing Director Thomas Schroeter. “Demand continues to exceed supply many times over.” For many people looking for an apartment, it is therefore still difficult to find a suitable place to stay. “In order to achieve a balanced housing market, we need more construction activity in the metropolitan areas,” says Schroeter.
What is also true: The rents in new buildings are also rising so strongly because new buildings are exempt from the rental price brake. Inexpensive new-build apartments can usually only be found where rents are subsidized to a low level by public subsidies. Newly built social housing in Berlin can be had for an average rent of 6.70 euros per square meter. However, the demand is greater than the supply. After all, the state-owned housing companies offer new apartments for an average of eleven euros per square meter of living space. They stagger the rent according to the income of the tenants.
Most contact requests per ad in Berlin
The asking rents for existing apartments in Berlin determined by Immoscout24 come very close to the price level that the competitor Immowelt recently reported for 2021. Immowelt calculated an average rent of EUR 10.40 per square meter for existing apartments in the federal capital, 19 cents less than Immoscout24.
Demand for rental apartments from existing stock rose significantly in all seven major cities. According to Immoscout24, in Berlin in the fourth quarter of last year, 174 contact requests per week were received for each advertisement. This means that demand has increased by 35 percent within a year. In Cologne, demand increased by 42 percent and was 70 contact requests per week per advertisement in the fourth quarter of 2021. This puts the cathedral city in second place nationwide. In Munich, there were 41 inquiries about an existing ad and in Frankfurt am Main 15. In Berlin, the demand for newly built rental apartments also increased. In the fourth quarter, an average of 30 contact requests were counted per new building advertisement. In Hamburg, demand is twelve inquiries per week in the fourth quarter.
The prospects for tenants for the next twelve months are not very promising. For example, Immoscout24 expects price growth of eight percent for existing apartments and seven percent for new rental apartments in Berlin. The real estate portal is forecasting an increase of three percent for Cologne. For Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main, Immoscout24 expects an increase of one percent for existing apartments and new buildings. In Munich, Immoscout24 sees little scope for price increases due to the high price level.
Not enough apartments built for newcomers
Meanwhile, experts estimate that prices for apartments and houses in Berlin and the surrounding area will continue to rise. “The party goes on,” said the chairman of the Berlin expert committee for property values Reiner Rössler at a conference on Tuesday evening, as reported by dpa. Not enough apartments have been built for those who have moved in in recent years. Prices would therefore probably continue to rise for another three to five years.