Asking rents barely grow in real terms, furnished and unfurnished apartments show comparable price dynamics

These findings are based on the latest update of the GREIX (German Real Estate Index) Rental Price Index published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The index analyzes asking rents for apartments in 37 German cities and regions, including the 30 most populous cities, using data from the VALUE market database.

"Asking rents continue to rise by around three percent in nominal terms. But since inflation also picked up, the year-on-year increase in real terms amounts to only 0.3 percent. Compared to the previous quarter, this is already the second consecutive decline. What matters here is less the average than the gap between cities, ranging from six percent above the previous year's level in Cologne to 0.8 percent below it in Berlin," says Jonas Zdrzalek, GREIX Project Lead, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Wide range among the eight largest cities

In a quarter-on-quarter comparison (Q2 2026 to Q1 2026), growth rates above the nationwide GREIX increase of 0.8 percent were recorded in Hamburg (+2.0 %), Cologne (+1.3 %), and Düsseldorf (+1.1 %). Munich's growth rate of +0.8 percent matched the national average exactly. Berlin (+0.6 %), Frankfurt a.M. (+0.1 %), and Stuttgart (+0.0 %), in contrast, recorded only modest increases. Asking rents in Leipzig declined slightly, by 0.1 percent.

The picture is clearer in year-on-year terms: Cologne (+6.0 %), Hamburg (+5.1 %), and Düsseldorf (+4.1 %) lead the field among the eight largest cities. Munich (+3.7 %), Frankfurt a.M. (+2.8 %), and Leipzig (+2.8 %) recorded moderate increases. Stuttgart grew by only 1.3 percent. Berlin, in contrast, was the only one of the eight largest cities to record a year-on-year decline, at −0.8 percent. The gap between the strongest and the weakest major city thus amounts to almost seven percentage points.

Rent levels: Munich remains the undisputed leader; Stuttgart illustrates the gap between level and momentum

Munich remains the most expensive city, with an average cold rent (net rent) of EUR 23.7 per square meter. Following at a significant distance are Frankfurt am Main (€17.8/m²), Hamburg (€16.5/m²), and Stuttgart (€16.3/m²). Cologne (€16.0/m²) and Berlin (€15.3/m²) represent the upper mid-range, while Düsseldorf stands at EUR 14.9/m². Leipzig marks the lower end of the eight largest cities at EUR 10.5/m². Current rent levels in Germany's eight largest cities continue to exhibit significant heterogeneity.

Stuttgart in particular illustrates how level and momentum can diverge: the city remains one of Germany's most expensive rental markets, but has recently shown only very modest growth among the major cities, at +0.0 percent quarter-on-quarter and +1.3 percent year-on-year. A high price level therefore does not automatically mean that prices keep rising strongly, just as a low level does not mean that a market stays calm.

The weighted average across all 37 cities and regions (GREIX) is currently EUR 14.3 per square meter.

Other cities: strong growth beyond the eight largest cities

Developments outside the eight largest cities also remain uneven. Asking rents rose particularly strongly in quarter-on-quarter terms in Kiel (+2.0 %), Karlsruhe (+1.8 %), Wiesbaden (+1.6 %), Münster (+1.6 %), Lübeck (+1.5 %), Essen (+1.4 %), Wuppertal (+1.4 %), and Potsdam (+1.3 %). Declines remained the exception and occurred mainly in Braunschweig (−0.9 %), Erfurt (−0.8 %), Aachen (−0.4 %), and the Rhein-Erft district near Cologne (−0.2 %).

Relationship between rent levels and time on market

Listing durations show how quickly rental listings are taken off the market in individual cities, without clearly identifying the causes of these differences. An analysis of the last four quarters across the 37 GREIX cities shows a clear statistical relationship between the level of asking rents and the share of listings that disappear from platforms again within one week (correlation: 0.74). Cities with high rent levels, such as Munich, thus tend to have shorter time on market.

New-build apartments significantly more expensive than existing stock

In the second quarter of 2026, new-build rental apartments cost EUR 19.0 per square meter in cold rent on average across the GREIX, compared to EUR 13.9 for existing-stock apartments, a gap of around EUR 5.1, or 36.6 percent. Among the eight largest cities, Munich is by far the most expensive for new-build apartments, at EUR 27.1 per square meter. It is followed by Hamburg at EUR 21.5, Stuttgart at EUR 20.7, and Frankfurt a.M. at EUR 20.6. Leipzig remains the lower end of the eight largest cities at EUR 14.6 per square meter.

Regular and long-term furnished apartments show similar price development

Since 2015, cold rents in the long-term furnished segment have developed similarly to regular listings through the second quarter of 2026. The index for regular listings stands at just above 151 points, while the index for long-term furnished cold rents stands at just under 155 points. The gap in the most recent quarter amounts to around 3.3 index points and is thus markedly smaller than in some earlier phases. The index comparison provides no robust evidence that long-term furnished listings have risen persistently more than regular listings since 2015.

"The pace of rent growth is not weakening further; instead, it is settling at around three percent year-on-year. At the same time, price developments differ little across the various apartment segments. Furnished and fixed-term rental apartments have not developed fundamentally differently from the regular rental market since 2015; earlier gaps between the segments have now almost disappeared again," says Jonas Zdrzalek, GREIX Project Lead, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Note:
Liquidity metrics as well as the comparison of new-build and existing-stock rent developments and the special segments are now also available on the GREIX website.

Methodological note

The price development of the GREIX rental price index is calculated as an index. This allows statistical methods (hedonic method) to be used to mitigate price distortions that often arise when using average price per square meter. For instance, if a high number of apartments in a prime location or in an extraordinary condition are sold, this can inflate average prices per square meter. However, such fluctuations may not reflect a general increase in real estate values. Using hedonic regression methods, specific property characteristics do not cause upward or downward distortions in the price trend.