After years of skyrocketing property prices, new data from the housing platform Immowelt has found that prices are now falling in 14 German cities. Hanover, Dresden and Bremen saw the biggest reductions.

House prices are falling in German cities

According to the real estate platform Immowelt, property prices in 14 German cities have recently fallen after a period of ongoing price rises since 2016 and a peak in 2022.

Immowelt’s findings determined Hanover to be the German city where property prices have seen the biggest drop. Houses and flats on the market in the city in Lower Saxony were listed with a 16,9 percent drop in price in comparison to 2022. The Hannoveraner can now expect to pay around 255.000 euros for a 75-square-metre flat in the city.

To conduct the analysis, Immowelt considered the prices of first-floor flats built in the 1990s which have three rooms, are 75 square metres in size and were listed on the site in 2022.

Property prices in Berlin fell only marginally

Apart from Hanover, four other cities in Germany have seen a fall in property prices according to Immowelt. Buyers in Dresden can expect prices 13,0 percent lower than in 2022, while Bremen and Stuttgart have seen respective decreases of 11,6 and 11,1 percent. Meanwhile, house hunters in Munich will now be paying 10,8 percent less than last year.

Cologne, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg and Frankfurt have all seen price drops in the region of 9 percent. In many other big cities further north the picture is a little less drastic; while properties in Hamburg have seen a price drop of 7,2 percent, there wasn’t as much movement in Leipzig and Berlin, where prices fell by a mere 4,2 and 3,3 percent respectively.

Though the overall trend is a hopeful one for buyers, property prices in most German cities still remain largely unaffordable for middle and lower-income earners. 

Overall, according to Immowelt, these are the German cities where house prices have fallen since 2022 and by how much: 

1. Hanover, -16,9 percent
2. Dresden, -13,0 percent
3. Bremen, -11,6 percent
4. Stuttgart, -11,1 percent
5. Munich, -10,8 percent
6. Cologne, -9,7 percent
7. Düsseldorf, -9,6 percent
8. Nuremberg, -9,4 percent
9. Frankfurt, -9,0 percent
10. Hamburg, -7,2 percent
11. Essen, -6,7 percent
12. Dortmund, -5,7 percent
13. Leipzig, -4,2 percent
14. Berlin, -3,3 percent

Thumb image credit: Ralf Gosch / Shutterstock.com