Real estate prices have risen sharply nationwide in recent years. The price index of the Federal Statistical Office makes this clear: between 2015 and 2022, real estate prices rose on average from 100 to 165.3 index points. Prospective buyers or builders had to reckon with annual cost increases of five percent during this period. In 2022, land cost on average around twice as much as in 2010 and 58 percent more than in 2015.
The prices for existing residential properties have also risen massively over the past ten years, by an average of 65 percent nationwide. In concrete terms, this means that anyone who bought their own home worth 300,000 euros in 2010 could sell it for just under 500,000 euros in 2022. In conurbations and metropolises, the price increases were sometimes even greater.
So it is hardly surprising that the purchase of real estate in the past decade has been more lucrative than ever before - after all, concrete gold can be used to make lavish profits. But the days of constant price increases seem to be over. Real estate prices are relaxing, in some places they are even falling slightly. So sell quickly before the property loses value? Or what actually motivates owners to sell apartments, houses or land at the moment? The real estate portal Immoverkauf24 investigated this question and asked a total of 13,400 owners about their motives. A key finding: One of the most frequently cited reasons for selling real estate is age.
age-related reasons
A total of 19.5 percent of the owners surveyed stated that they wanted to sell their home for reasons of age. Either because the care of the house is too high in old age or there are plans to move closer to the children or they need help themselves. But also the death of residents (1.1 percent) and inheritance of real estate without personal use (9.5 percent) are frequent reasons for selling due to age. In summary, age aspects currently account for 30 percent of the reasons for selling.
And it is likely to increase in the coming years in view of the aging society. Because by the mid-2030s, the number of people in Germany who are older than 67 years will increase by around four million to at least 20 million, the Federal Statistical Office predicts. "Since the proportion of older and very old people in Germany is increasing, significantly more properties will come onto the market in the coming years due to the age structure of our society," says Cinja Kinnemann, Managing Director of Immoverkauf24. And that in turn is likely to have an increasingly strong influence on the price structure of the real estate market.
capital requirements
About the same number, namely 31 percent of the owners surveyed, intend to skim off the financial profit or to get the invested capital by selling their property. Since real estate prices are still very high in some places despite the slight decline, according to Kinnemann, now is a good time to sell. However, owners would have to be prepared for longer marketing times and increased negotiation needs on the part of buyers, she explains. Demand has fallen slightly due to inflation and interest rate hikes.
In the past, more and more professionals have shown themselves willing to change their place of residence for their dream job. This is confirmed by a study by the online job platform Stepstone from 2018: According to this, 55 percent of German specialists and managers have already relocated at least once for work-related reasons. It seems obvious that the home office trend, which increased particularly in the first two years of the pandemic, is slowing down this development. Nevertheless, it is evident that even today 19.3 percent of owners are willing to move for new life situations such as a new family member or professional change and to sell their property in return.
Where are there bargains?
In the long term, those who are willing to buy could therefore have good opportunities to purchase a property. It is true that prices in metropolises such as Berlin, Düsseldorf or Stuttgart have fallen by between two and ten percent in the past year. However, Kinnemann does not believe that prices will continue to fall significantly. It expects prices to stabilize at a high level in the medium term. Her tip for bargain hunters: “Real estate prices in Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland and Saxony are comparatively low – 'bargains' are also possible here,” she says. In comparison: In Hamburg, Berlin, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the asking prices are two to three times as high.
