Rents for Berlin apartments new on the market increased at a mean rate of 1.7% during the second half of 2007, and averaged €5.90/m²/month. The purchase price median for condominiums was €1,500/m²/month, unchanged from the first semester. It must be remembered though that purchase prices had been subject to a substantial increase previously.
These are the findings of the third Berlin Housing Market Report that GSW compiled in cooperation with the international real estate consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Both companies are expecting rent rates and purchase prices to keep rising.
As Andrew Groom, European Director of Jones Lang LaSalle, suggests: "The fundamentals indicate a renewed upward development. While real estate prices and rent rates follow the economic situation, they do so with a time lag because decisions to relocate or buy are not made until after the income has increased."
The survey captured the data of about 172,000 rental offers and 3,180 sales offers in 2007. The results do not compare to the biannually published Berlin Rent Table that evaluates primarily the rents of existing housing stock in Berlin by sampling a contingent on the order of 8,000 apartments. Berlin's rental apartment supply totalled 1.65 million apartments in 2006, subject to an annual fluctuation of about 10%.
Berlin's first Housing Cost Atlas sets housing costs in relation to residents' income
Together with the Housing Market Report, GSW and Jones Lang LaSalle published the first issue of a Housing Cost Atlas for Berlin. It quotes prices and sizes of apartments to let in 189 postal code areas in Berlin, including income figures for the respective quarters, and thus the relative rent load of households.
The Housing Cost Atlas refines the information provided by the traditional Housing Market Report: "The absolute housing costs alone hardly tell the whole story of a given quarter," explained Thomas Zinn
