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In 2006, the appraisal guidelines for mortgage banks were standardised via the German Valuation Ordinance (WertV). 


The Reenacted Mortgage Lending Value Ordinance 

20210923 Branchennews

On 1 December 2020, Germany’s Home Ownership Modernisation Act (WEMoG) became effective. It governs the promotion of electric mobility within the framework of German climate change mitigation policy, among other things.

E-Mobility Boosted by New German Legislation

20210826 Branchennews

Materials like timber, steel and insulation are quite obviously indispensable in building construction. But since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, demand has skyrocketed, and supplies are running low. 

Demand for building material like timber rising rapidly – as are the prices

20210819 Branchennews

The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia passed a Housing Protection Act (“Wohnraumstärkungsgesetz”) on 16 June that entered into force on 1 July. 

North Rhine-Westphalia Imposing Fines for Misuse of Residential Property 

20210714 Branchennews

According to figures released by the Brussels-based authority, fatalities from exposure to asbestos amount to 88,000 annually in Europe. 

EU Commission Resolves to Lower Asbestos Exposure Limits by 2022 

20210708 Branchenews

Germany’s most desirable kind of rental flat measures 66 square metres, divides into two-and-a-half bedrooms, and costs 446 euros to rent, net of heating.

Germany’s Most Desirable Rental Flats – an Analysis by the ImmobilienScout24 Real Estate Portal

The European Union intends to be carbon-neutral by 2050, the interim target for 2030 being the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent. Germany made serious progress on its way toward carbon-neutrality last year:

Buildings Sector Misses Climate Protection Targets over Coronavirus Crisis

Germany’ buildings sector plays a key role in the effort to achieve the country’s climate targets: It accounts for nearly 40 percent of the German energy consumption.

Rising Demand for Energy Refurbishments

The coronavirus crisis had virtually no adverse consequences on Germany’s residential property market in 2020. Nor is 2021 likely to see any change in the status of real estate as a coveted commodity...

No Slowing Down for Residential Investors in 2021

Although building finance rates are at an all-time low, the homeownership rate in Germany is in decline.

Germany’s Declining Homeownership Rate

The number of planning consents issued for condominiums in Germany has plummeted lately. 

Number of Condominium Planning Consents Takes Nosedive

In spring of this year, mere weeks into the coronavirus pandemic, many in Germany still believed that condominium prices would deteriorate, whereas few people still think so now.

Majority Assumes that Condominium Prices Won’t Soften

The stated goal of Germany’s grand coalition government in early 2018 was to ensure the construction of 1.5 million new flats nationwide by 2021. It has been evident for some time now that this goal will not be achieved. 

Shortfall of 300,000 Flats

The values of condominiums and homes have kept on rising in 2019, too. The year seamlessly continued the trend of previous years, as the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report 2020 just confirmed.

Homeownership Report: Growth in Prices and Sales Figures

Real estate is considered a particularly safe type of investment. This is probably one of the main reasons why the experience of the corona virus crisis has made it even more popular among private investors than it was anyway. 

Real Estate Gaining in Popularity in Wake of Crisis

As recently as March, some forecasts projected a serious set-back for the German housing market due to the corona virus crisis—with the Empirica institute, for one, talking about a dip of up to 25 percent...

German Housing Market Continues to Show Impressive Crisis Resilience

One of Berlin’s climate protection targets is to make the German capital carbon-neutral by 2050 – and refurbishing the residential building stock will be a key factor in achieving this goal.

Survey: Rent Cap Slows Climate Protection

The housing shortage in Berlin remains high. The German capital now lacks around 145,000 flats, said Jürgen Allerkamp, CEO of the IBB Investment Bank Berlin, as he presented the latest IBB Housing Market Report.

Planning Approval Figures on the Rise in Germany, but Declining in Berlin

Germany’s body politic has long been confronted with the demand to quit stalling and take effective steps to boost private homeownership.

Political Measures Could Bring Germany’s Homeownership Rate up to 58 Percent

The revenue from the real estate transfer tax for the German Länder increased by 12.1 percent in 2019, making it the tenth consecutive year of growth.

Another Record in Real Estate Transfer Tax Receipts

Germany’s second-tier cities have become extremely popular among real estate investors – and not just among domestic ones.

European Investors Have their Sights on Germany’s Secondary Cities

Between 2012 and 2018, Germany’s population increased by a total of 2.5 million residents. At the same time, a disproportionate number of younger people moved to the country’s major cities, as the Federal Statistical Office recently disclosed.

Pressure on German Housing Markets Keeps Rising

The question how secure the government pension scheme is has preoccupied the German public for quite some time. As early as 1986, ahead of the general elections, the Federal Minister of Labour...

Serious Worries about Old-Age Poverty

Whether or not a real estate bubble is looming or indeed about to burst on Germany’s housing market has been subject to public debate for years.

Still No Signs of a Real Estate Bubble

In addition to the housing issue, climate protection is one of the key subjects that are at the very centre of the public debate in Germany.

Climate Policy Reversal in the Housing Sector Requires Billions Annually

The housing issue is currently one of the most hotly debated topics in Germany’s politics and media.

Germans have Misguided Notions about the Housing Market

While the number of condominium sales in the major German cities declined overall in 2018, average selling prices increased noticeably, as the ACCENTRO Homeownership Report 2019 shows.

East German Housing Markets Keep Catching up

Germany’s property tax legislation must be re-enacted by the end of 2019 at the latest, or so the Federal Administrative Tribunal ruled.

Social Democrats Lay Axe to Recoverability of Property Tax

A reform of Germany’s real estate transfer tax has been demanded for the longest time in order to encourage more people to seek homeownership. At 45 percent, Germany’s homeownership rate counts among the lowest anywhere in Europe.

How a Reform of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Would Provide Relief to Home Buyers

So far, there had basically been a political consensus that red tape and amendments to the landlord-tenant law would be applied to existing properties only while sparing new-build ones as much as possible.

German Ministry of Justice Seeks to Regulate New-Build Rents as Well

The steep price growth over the past years has drastically increased the wealth of many property owners.

Low Homeownership Rate Causes Great Differences in Wealth

The demand for housing in Germany will keep increasing for decades to come – in spite of the prospective long-term decline in population. This is the upshot of a survey conducted by Bernd Raffelhüschen and Roman Witkowski at the University of Freiburg.

Housing Demand to Keep Rising for Decades

Katarina Barley (Social Democrats), the former Minister of Justice who just resigned her brief for a seat in the European Parliament, submitted a draft bill for far-reaching amendments to the landlord-tenant legislation to the federal cabinet...

German Ministry of Justice Plans to Further Tighten Landlord-Tenant Law

The net assets of private German households have been making hefty gains, as a recent survey by the Bundesbank noted. 

Homeowners Keep Getting Wealthier

At a time when the rent control measure colloquially referred to as the “rent freeze” (“Mietpreisbremse”) is being tightened on the federal level and the state of Berlin is seriously discussing expropriations, the state of Schleswig-Holstein...

Schleswig-Holstein Trailblazing New Housing Policy Approach

While the Germany’s governing Grand Coalition is still discussing ways to sponsor homeownership for private households, some of the German Laender have already moved ahead.

Some Endorse Homeownership whereas Others Hamper It

In its latest annual expert opinion, the German Council of Economic Experts (SVR) has criticised the housing policy of Germany’s Federal Government.

Economy Experts Criticise Landlord-Tenant Law Regulations

Fewer and fewer young Germans get to live within their own four walls, or so a survey by the Handelsblatt Research Institute suggests.

Homeownership Becoming Increasingly Elusive for Young People

People in lower income brackets suffer greater hardship from the strained housing market than high earners. This is the gist of a survey that Humboldt University in Berlin conducted in collaboration with the University College London.

Rent Growth – Downward Spiral for Low-Income Groups

In the run-up to the housing summit that is scheduled to take place at the German Chancellery on 21 September, the governing Grand Coalition agreed on two housing policy draft bills.

German Government Moves ahead with Special Depreciation Allowance and Rent Freeze

The Scientific Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs has sounded a wake-up call for the Federal Government with an expert opinion on Germany’s housing policy.

Government Advisers Call for Housing Policy Shift

84 percent of all Germany would rather be living in their own abode instead of renting. This is the gist of a poll conducted by the Civey public opinion research institute on behalf of the Spiegel Online news magazine.

Vast Majority of Germans Crave Homeownership

Homeownership is becoming an ever more important topic for Germany’s grand coalition government. With the child tax credit for first-time home buyers...

German Government Considers Lowering Incidental Acquisition Costs

Ever since the coalition agreement between the Christian Democrat block and the Social Democrats was passed, it was understood that a housing summit would be convened before the end of the year.

German Chancellor to Host Housing Summit

The child tax credit for first-time home buyers that the German government introduced recently has proven highly controversial both in the body politic and in the real estate industry.

Majority of Surveys Take Dim View of Child Tax Credit for Home Buyers

The shortage in building land, especially in metro areas, is one of the main reasons why housing construction in Germany has lagged far behind demand for some years now.

Federally-Owned Land in Germany Includes 971 Undeveloped Plots in Major Cities

The poverty risk rate among tenants in Germans has nearly doubled since 1991. While only 16 percent of Germany’s residential tenants lived below the poverty line in the early 1990s, the figure was close to 29 percent by 2015. 

Poverty Risk among Tenants Rising Significantly

Going forward, residential living will become a good deal more digital and smarter. This is the—admittedly unsurprising—gist of the survey “Wohntrends 2035” the GdW Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies ...

Middle of Society Ignored by German Housing Policy

Household wealth in Germany showed an 8.3-percent increase over prior-year period by the end of the first quarter of 2018. This is the upshot of the latest Asset Price Index compiled quarterly by the Storch Research Institute (FvS).

Real Estate Boosting Wealth Formation in Germany

A short while ago, Germany’s Constitutional Court of Justice declared the calculation basis for the property tax unconstitutional.

Germany Property Tax Reform Likely to Relieve some Households

In the short time remaining before the parliamentary summer recess, the new German Government intends to write its first housing policy resolutions into law. 

Grand Coalition Draws up a Package of Housing Policy Measures

At a time when municipal housing companies in many of Germany’s major cities, including Berlin, are prompted by city hall to beef up their property stock, the IW Economic Institute, Cologne,...

Economic Research Institute Suggests Cities Sell off Their Housing Stock

The stated goal of the Grand Coalition that was just voted into office as Germany’s next government is to raise 1.5 million new flats in Germany between now and 2021.

Housing Deficit Keeps Deepening

Despite the current low-interest phase and the real estate boom the home ownership rate in Germany stagnates since 2010 at 45 percent, EU-wide the lowest figure.

How the state could react with little money to increase home ownership

With nearly five month gone since the general election for the German Parliament, a new government is about to be formed now. 

Grand Coalition: Homeownership to be Promoted

The number of residential completions in Germany has been going up steadily in recent years, yet the momentum in housing construction is likely to start slowing as early as 2019.

Housing Construction Expected to Stagnate

An alliance between public and private players in the real estate sectors has been set up in Cologne.

More Housing through Closer Collaboration between Municipalities and Private Businesses

Notwithstanding Germany's steady increase in demand, housing construction continues to lag hopelessly behind.

Housing Shortage in Germany, with Demand for Accommodation Rising Fastest in Berlin

Since September 2006 the real estate transfer tax became a federal state matter, and ever since turned out to be a lucrative source of income for the individual states.

Real Estate Transfer Tax: North Rhine Westphalia increases to 6.5 percent

Whenever an occupied rental flat in Germany is converted into a freehold property or condominium, and sold, the incumbent tenant is decidedly well protected.

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The Reenacted Mortgage Lending Value Ordinance

The Reenacted Mortgage Lending Value Ordinance