“Households that would have bought two years ago are looking for rental housing.”

Even away from Munich or Frankfurt, the profitability threshold has reached a level that was scarcely imaginable just a few years ago. Three examples from Bavaria: According to calculations by local housing companies, the rent in Nuremberg is between EUR 16.50 and EUR 18.00 per square meter, in Forchheim in Upper Franconia it is EUR 18.30 and in Kempten in the Allgäu EUR 18.50. “Building is simply too expensive,” comments Ludwig Dorffmeister, the construction and real estate specialist at the Munich Ifo Institute. “In May, construction prices for conventional new residential construction were 36 percent higher than in early summer 2020.”