Berlin housing market

Purchase prices by type of flat, 2015 to 2024

The Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin) analyses purchase contracts signed at the notary, not advertisements. That makes this series one of the most reliable price sources in the city. The trade-off is that it comes later. All values in euros per square metre of living space.

‘Converted’ means: the flat was previously part of a rental building and became an owner-occupied flat that can be sold individually. Source: Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin), time series of purchase prices by submarket, purchase contracts analysed up to 2024. Percentages in the last column calculated by us.

What this table shows

First: all five types of flat peaked in 2022, not later.

Second: the decline in 2023 was noticeable everywhere, but not dramatic. It ranged from 5.7 per cent for new-build flats and converted period flats, which were level, to 7.7 per cent for converted social housing flats.

Third, and this is the most interesting point: in 2024 the types of flat diverge. New builds rose again, while converted flats in older buildings continued to ease slightly. New builds benefit from the fact that fewer homes are being completed in Berlin overall and new flats remain scarce.

Over the ten years, prefab flats rose the most in percentage terms. That says nothing about their quality. If you start from a very low price, you gain more in percentage terms. In euros per square metre they are still at the bottom end.

How many contracts were signed

Prices react slowly because sellers adjust their expectations late. The number of purchase contracts reacts quickly. Where nobody agrees, nothing is notarised.

Source: Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin), transaction statistics. Includes all types of property, not just residential.

What this table shows

Between 2021 and 2023 the number of purchase contracts fell by more than a third. The total of all purchase prices fell by almost half. That is a much sharper movement than the price table above suggests.

The reason was the rise in interest rates. Buyers could no longer pay the old prices, and sellers did not yet want to give them up. In this gap the market largely came to a standstill.

In 2024 the number of contracts rose again by a good 18 per cent, and the total of purchase prices by around 20 per cent. The area sold, however, stayed at the 2023 low. So the market is moving again for flats, but is still stalling for plots of land.

For sellers this means: the market is back, but it pays different prices than in 2022. For buyers it means: the period when hardly anyone else was bidding ended in 2024.

New builds and vacancy

Supply remains permanently tight. At the 2022 census, vacancy was 1.97 per cent, that is around 40,700 flats out of a total of well over two million.

As a rule of thumb, three per cent of flats standing empty are considered necessary for a housing market to function. Moves, refurbishments and the time until reletting always tie up a share. Berlin is below that.

29 per cent of the empty flats had been empty for more than a year. For the market, they are therefore practically non-existent.

Construction in Berlin is very uneven. In 2024, Treptow-Köpenick completed by far the most flats, followed by Spandau. At the bottom are Steglitz-Zehlendorf and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, where only a few hundred flats were added in each. The exact figures for each district are on the district pages.

That explains part of the price differences. Where hardly anything new is built, a seller competes only with other resale flats. In Treptow-Köpenick, the seller competes with brand-new ones.

What this means for owners

First: the 2022 peak is no longer a benchmark. If you go to market today with a price from that time, the main result is that your sale takes longer. 2023 showed what happens then: the hoped-for price does not come later either, instead everyone in the market already knows the flat, and it becomes harder to sell.

Second: the differences have grown. A refurbished period flat in a good location and an unrefurbished flat with high heating costs no longer move in step. Since interest rates rose, the condition of the heating, windows and insulation has had a direct effect on the price. Buyers have to finance the refurbishment costs as well.

Third: there are more buyers again, but they calculate more carefully. Documents that used to be handed in later now decide whether the bank approves the loan. If you have all the documents ready, you shorten the sale measurably.

Updates to this report

The price and transaction figures of the Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss) are published once a year, usually in spring for the previous year. This report is updated each time the property market report (Grundstücksmarktbericht) is published. The district data in the market data section are reviewed quarterly, independently of this.

Sources for this report: Berlin valuation committee (Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin; purchase price time series by submarket, transaction statistics), Census 2022 (vacancy, reference date 15/05/2022), Office for Statistics Berlin-Brandenburg (completions). Compiled by BBI Immobilien. Information without guarantee. This analysis does not replace a valuation of a specific property.