Immobilien: Kaufpreise für Wohnungen sinken erstmals seit mehr als zwei Jahren

Bad news for sellers and good news for buyers: hopes for a sustained recovery in Germany's residential property market have been damped. For the first time in over two years, prices for owner-occupied apartments have fallen below last year's level. Meanwhile, fewer properties are being marketed, with apartments and houses staying on the market longer.

This comes from the Greix Purchase Price Index released on Thursday by the Kiel Institute for World Economy (IfW), which they create jointly with the advisory committees. The index is based on actually notarized sales and is therefore a particularly robust indicator of developments on the property market. Consequently, owner-occupied apartments fell in price by 0.2 percent in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year, marking the first decline in the annual comparison since the second quarter of 2024.

Prices in particular are now facing strong pressure in one city. The residential market is developing very differently by region. Most clearly, the weakness is evident in Berlin. Owner-occupied apartments fell in price by 0.9 percent in Berlin in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter, and by 2.9 percent in the annual comparison.

This was the third consecutive quarter with falling prices compared to last year. Other major cities, however, show a different picture. In Cologne, owner-occupied apartments rose by 2.8 percent compared to the previous quarter, by 2.4 percent in Frankfurt, and by 0.8 percent in Düsseldorf. In Stuttgart and Leipzig, prices remained almost unchanged.

The development in Cologne is particularly striking. There, prices were 4.6 percent above last year's level in the third quarter. In Leipzig, the annual price increase weakened significantly from 3.9 percent to just 0.6 percent. Overall, prices were still slightly up by 0.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter.

However, the development shows that the upswing in the residential market has largely come to a standstill. At the beginning of 2025, owner-occupied apartments had already risen by 3.3 percent in the course of a year. In the second quarter of 2026, the increase was only 0.1 percent. An expert speaks of a "trend reversal" for owner-occupied apartments.

"The rise in prices for owner-occupied apartments has effectively come to a standstill," says Jonas Zdrzalek, project leader of the Greix at the Kiel Institute for World Economy. The first negative quarter since more than two years marks a trend reversal, even if the decline is still small. The same holds true for other property types.

Single-family houses fell in price compared to the previous quarter by 0.5 percent, while multi-family houses fell by 0.2 percent. Compared to last year, the prices for single-family houses were still 0.9 percent higher. Multi-family houses, on the other hand, were 2.4 percent cheaper. Because of the low number of sales, the results for multi-family houses are only partially informative.

The financing costs are also decisive. The ongoing high construction interest rates make it difficult for many potential buyers to finance a property even with stagnating or falling prices.