Rents in Frankfurt are rising significantly
An Internet portal for Frankfurt records an increase of twelve percent in five years. The figures in the Frankfurt rent index are not quite as dramatic.
Frankfurt – Crisis, housing shortage, building land shortage and high interest rates hit Frankfurt again more strongly on the rental prices. They have risen by twelve percent for five years – and after the dip in demand during Corona, they are developing significantly again. This is the result of an evaluation of the Internet portal Immowelt.
The people of Frankfurt are even lucky with that: “In 33 cities, those looking for an apartment are currently paying at least 20 percent more than in 2017,” says Immowelt. For comparison: inflation in the same period is almost 15 percent, with the development in the current year with energy shortages after the Russian war in Ukraine driving inflation.
Rents in Frankfurt are rising almost inexorably
The company carried out the 5-year comparison in 79 major German cities. For this purpose, the asking rents for apartments (40 to 120 square meters, existing buildings without new construction) between January and October 2017 were related to the same period in 2022 in the advertisements placed on immowelt.de.
The result: rents in large cities are rising almost inexorably. At the top of the big cities are Munich (plus 17 percent) with now 18.70 euros per square meter and Stuttgart (plus 22 percent) ahead of Frankfurt. In the Main metropolis, the average asking price in 2017 was 12.10 euros, in the months of 2022 it was already 13.50 euros.
Things are also improving in smaller towns: in Rostock up 37 percent, in Heilbronn up 34 percent, in Heidelberg up 29 percent. The smallest increases were in Salzgitter with four, Ingolstadt with five and Chemnitz with six percent.
For Immowelt, the comparison shows that after the upward trend in rents stalled during Corona, the numbers are now going up as they did before the pandemic. While demand during the pandemic shifted in the direction of smaller cities, where prices rose significantly as a result, rents are now also increasing noticeably in the metropolises.
Building interest is no longer affordable for many
Experts are dying that one reason is the changed interest rate situation. Buying real estate is no longer affordable for many people due to the significant increase in building interest rates. “As a result, demand is even more concentrated on the rental market, which has a price-driving effect.”
There are actually “demanding rents on the market” at the moment, confirms Jürgen Conzelmann, chairman of the Haus & Grund owners’ association in Frankfurt. This is mainly due to the fact that not enough apartments are being built to meet demand. And that not only affects Frankfurt, but the entire region. “Why isn’t there more construction?” It is urgently necessary “that the municipalities in the region finally find a consensus on where to build”.
Conzelmann advises caution with the Immowelt figures. The Internet portals quickly only offer those existing apartments that come back onto the market after modernization. Then there are often price jumps, especially if apartments had previously been rented at low prices for decades. The exploded construction costs of the renovation as well as the brokerage costs now imposed on the landlords also flowed into the new rent level.
The Frankfurt rent index gives other figures
On the other hand, the many apartments in which new tenants moved in on the recommendation of the previous tenants were missing from the Immowelt statistics. “There is often only a moderate surcharge, if at all,” emphasizes Conzelmann. The municipal rent index reflects this reality somewhat better. Its updated version has been in effect since this summer. The underlying investigation In the city, rents have risen by just 9.9 percent over the past five years and are at 10.29 euros.
The rent index expertise also mentions a new feature. For example, rents in new contracts increase much more than in old contracts. Existing tenants only had to accept an increase of 5.2 percent, they now pay an average of 9.14 euros. Anyone who signs a new contract, on the other hand, pays 11.56 euros – 13.2 percent more than five years ago. (Dennis Pfeiffer-Goldmann)