WIESBADEN (dpa-AFX) - Prices for residential real estate in Germany fell in the second quarter within a year as never before since the beginning of the statistics in 2000. Apartments and houses became cheaper on average by 9.9 percent compared to the second quarter of 2022, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Friday in Wiesbaden. It was the strongest minus since the beginning of the time series in 2000. Compared to the previous quarter, however, the decline of 1.5 percent was less than in the two previous quarters. At that time, residential property prices had fallen by 2.9 and 5.1 percent respectively compared with the previous quarter.

Since the peak in the second quarter of 2022, prices have been falling, according to the data. The main reason for the turnaround in the real estate market after years of boom is the sharp rise in construction interest rates, which have made loans much more expensive. Added to this is the stubbornly high inflation, which is reducing people's purchasing power. Many people can no longer afford to buy real estate.

Prices fell on average in both urban and rural areas in the second quarter. They fell more sharply in the cities. Particularly sharp falls compared with the prior-year quarter were recorded in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. Here, the price of detached and semi-detached houses fell by 12.6 percent, while buyers had to pay an average of 9.8 percent less for apartments than a year earlier./mar/DP/mis