Price-to-rent multiplier in Berlin 2026

What the price-to-rent multiplier tells you

The price-to-rent multiplier is the purchase price divided by the annual rent, excluding ancillary costs. It tells you how many years' rent a buyer pays. With the Berlin figure of 21.1, the purchase price of a multi-family building therefore contains 21.1 times the annual net cold rent.

If you buy to let, the multiplier tells you more than the price per square metre. It puts price and rental income side by side. The district with the highest price per square metre does not automatically have the highest multiplier. Costs, vacancies and interest are left out. The multiplier is the start of a calculation.

Sales or listings: two multipliers

There are two kinds of multiplier in circulation, and they are far apart. One is based on purchase contracts signed at the notary, the other on listings. Mixing the two leads to the wrong conclusions.

This is how we calculate it for Berlin. The median asking price across all listings is €5,789 per square metre. Divided by €189.36 of annual rent per square metre (€15.78 median asking rent times twelve), that gives 30.6. The IBB itself does not publish a multiplier. The property type, data basis and point in time differ. The gap between 30.6 and 21.1 is therefore not a discount you can negotiate.

Price-to-rent multiplier by district

Guthmann Estate publishes a sales multiplier for nine of the twelve districts, but not for Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Treptow-Köpenick. The calculated listing multipliers are available for all twelve districts.

Sales: Guthmann Estate, map dataset "apartment buildings" based on transaction data from the Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss), retrieved on 15/09/2026; "–" means the source gives no figure. Marzahn-Hellersdorf is based on 8 sales and is correspondingly uncertain.

Listings: IBB Housing Market Report 2025, table volume, Tables 25 and 27, our own calculation. * The median purchase price here comes from a price band with no lower limit and is therefore less certain.

Compared with 2025, only Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf holds its multiplier in the dataset (plus 0.5). The sharpest falls are in Lichtenberg, down 4.9, and Reinickendorf, down 4.1. Lichtenberg shows how far listings and sales can diverge: calculated 34.7, notarised 18.1. Details are on the district pages.

From 32.1 to 21.1: the trend since 2021

The median sales multiplier for Berlin multi-family buildings was 32.1 in 2021, 31.1 in 2022, 25.3 in 2023, 22.8 in 2024 and 22.4 in 2025. At 21.1 in 2026, it is at its lowest since 2014, according to Guthmann Estate (back then: 19.7). We do not derive any forecast from this series.

Workings: from multiplier to yield

Divide 100 by the multiplier and you have the yield in per cent. This means one year's rent relative to the purchase price, before all costs. The technical term is gross initial yield. Conversely, 100 divided by the yield gives you the multiplier again.

• Berlin, median 21.1: 100 ÷ 21.1 = 4.74, that is around 4.7 per cent. Guthmann Estate gives the same figure before operating costs.
• Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, 24.5: 100 ÷ 24.5 = 4.08, that is around 4.1 per cent.
• Multiplier from listings, Berlin, 30.6: 100 ÷ 30.6 = 3.27, that is around 3.3 per cent.

This yield leaves out repairs, property management, lost rent, the costs of the purchase, interest and taxes. Only the rent roll of the specific building shows whether it pays off.

Multiplier and property yield rate

Valuers assess a let building on the basis of its rental income. The result is called the income value (Ertragswert). For this they need the property yield rate (Liegenschaftszins): the return that buyers of such buildings achieve on the market. The Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss) derives it from real purchase prices. For the City area group, with net cold rents of €8 to €12 per square metre, it lies between 3.3 and 3.9 per cent (reference date 31/12/2024). How we bring the two together in a valuation is explained on the page Sell an apartment building in Berlin.

Sources

• Guthmann Estate, Market Intelligence Berlin, Apartment Buildings: median multiple 2021 to 2026, as of 19/08/2026; district figures and number of sales from the page's map dataset, data basis: Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin), retrieved on 15/09/2026
• Investitionsbank Berlin, IBB Housing Market Report 2025, table volume, Table 25 (asking rents by district) and Table 27 (asking prices for owner-occupied flats by price band); multipliers our own calculation
• Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin), property yield rates (Liegenschaftszinssätze) as at the reference date 31/12/2024, City area group

More figures: Berlin housing market report, Market data at a glance, Investment property in Berlin, Property valuation in Berlin.