Berlin Apartment Market Q4 2026

Resale market

Berlin's housing stock comprises around 2.05 million apartments, the vast majority of them in older buildings, the so-called resale market. The stock is highly heterogeneous, shaped by a history of growth, war, division and reunification. The price an apartment achieves depends on fittings, condition and location, graded from the borough down to the individual block. It also depends on the construction period. The market data of Berlin's Committee of Valuation Experts distinguish eight construction periods, from Altbau built up to 1918 to buildings completed from 2014 onwards. We define resale apartments as those in buildings more than five years old.

These apartments are currently notarised in Berlin at an average of €5,180 per sqm. Year on year, the change is -€110 per sqm or -2.0 %.

A full property cycle usually lasts 7 to 15 years. A classic period of 7 to 10 years is often observed (some models extend it to 18 years). The exact length depends on the region, interest rates and the economy. Measured over these common periods, the average annual change is 8.3 % over fifteen years and 7.1 % over ten years.

Prices by location

For a long time, location was regarded as the most important factor for a property's value prospects. In fact, the past two decades have seen different tendencies within Berlin and across individual locations. Before the boom, locations were viewed in sharp contrast. During the boom, prices became more homogeneous: they rose across the board, even where location factors were weaker. Most recently, location factors have again diverged markedly by micro-location.

The highest prices per sqm are currently notarised in Mitte (€6,490 per sqm), Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (€5,760 per sqm) and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (€5,690 per sqm). The lowest are in Spandau (€3,360 per sqm), Reinickendorf (€3,740 per sqm) and Marzahn-Hellersdorf (€3,910 per sqm). The full ranking of all twelve boroughs is shown in the table.

The spread within boroughs is wide, because some of them combine areas of very different character. In the borough of Mitte, for example, prices in the individual districts lie far apart. Mitte proper achieves €8,360 per sqm, considerably more than the district of Wedding, which also belongs to the borough and where prices stand at €4,110 per sqm.

Price gap

Whether Berlin is a buyers' or a sellers' market is a frequent question. One way to answer it is the gap between the transaction price and the original asking price. This gap indicates the balance of negotiating power between buyers and sellers. It measures how close sellers' price expectations come to buyers' willingness to pay. It currently stands at 8 % or €430 per sqm.

Market activity

One metric for assessing the state of the market is overall market activity, in short, the number of units traded. Notaries send a copy of every purchase contract notarised in Berlin to the office of Berlin's Committee of Valuation Experts, where it is analysed.

As at the data cut-off for this edition, 7,529 notarisations are recorded. For 2025 the series shows 12,514. The current-year figure is incomplete because notarisations are reported with a lag.

Apartments on offer

New listings, combined with longer marketing periods for existing listings, are creating an oversupply in the Berlin market. Sellers therefore need more patience. Alternatively, they can speed up a sale by being willing to negotiate and, above all, by pricing in line with the market. In the coming years, more supply from past condominium conversions is also expected. This will not necessarily cause a backlog, but it works against price growth driven by simple supply and demand.

As of today, we have identified 46,566 listings. In the fourth quarter, this figure clearly exceeds the 2025 total of 38,064 listings.

Other pricing factors

Besides location, availability, construction period, condition and size affect the price. Condition and fittings must always be assessed individually. This includes the situation within the owners' association and the condition of the common property. Buyers and banks also take energy performance into account, along with the future investment it may require.

Availability

Availability, meaning whether an apartment is sold vacant or tenanted, has gained relevance since interest rates changed. During the low-interest phase, the achievable rental yield receded into the background. With rising interest rates, the trend has reversed. The effect is particularly strong for tenanted apartments. If the yield moves too far from the costs a buyer bears through financing and equity, the apartment will only sell if other factors, such as a very good location, outweigh this. As an investment, an apartment has to work from the buyer's point of view. Part of the supply on the market is not competitive, also when compared with alternative investments.

Living area

The living area of apartments sold has declined over the years. Whether buying an apartment is affordable depends largely on the total purchase price. The effect of size on the market is even more visible in new developments than in the resale market. Nevertheless, average size is also falling in the resale market. It currently stands at 70 sqm, compared with 74 sqm in 2010.

Transaction price

When prices per sqm were low, large units were very popular with buyers. As prices rose sharply, the simple calculation of price per sqm times living area led, among other things, to the declining apartment sizes shown above. Comparing the average transaction price in 2010 with today's figure illustrates the scale. The average transaction value today is €372,300; in 2010 it was €109,200.

Construction periods

Supply and demand are distributed unevenly across construction periods. The largest share of sales is accounted for by apartments built up to 1918, followed by the 1950 to 1964 period. The latter is one of the more affordable price classes, albeit with challenges in energy efficiency.

The following overview describes the characteristics of each construction period.

New development market

Berlin's market for new developments is in crisis, even though prices are stable to slightly rising. Construction costs jumped from 2021 onwards. Their rise has since slowed, but costs keep climbing and are still driven by external factors. At the same time, demand has fallen because of the tight interest-rate level. Sales of new developments in Berlin have been stuck at a low point for years and have not yet moved out of it.

As at the data cut-off for this edition, 924 notarisations are recorded. For 2025 the series shows 1,428.

Prices, too, remain stuck in a sideways movement. New developments are notarised at an average of €8,440 per sqm. Year on year, the change is €240 per sqm or 3.0 %. Over ten years, the change is 106.0 %, an average annual change of 7.5 %.

The average living area of notarised new developments is 60 sqm. In 2015 it was 82 sqm.

Rental market

The rental market is the dominant issue in Berlin, one that repeatedly wins elections without producing noticeable solutions. Yet the real problem in the existing stock does not appear to be the level of rents. It is the lack of available housing, the result of decades of neglected new construction. The ongoing regulation of the existing stock has not eased the housing shortage. Instead, a number of effects not discussed here have made it worse.

Overall, analysing the rental market is difficult because the data are almost always incomplete. The average asking rent for resale apartments is €17 per sqm (net cold rent). For new developments it is €22 per sqm. Year on year, the change for new developments is -€1.00 per sqm.

In 2015 the asking rent in the resale segment was €9 per sqm, in 2020 €11 per sqm.

Asking rents include furnished and fixed-term lettings. Their share of total supply cannot be determined from listing data.

For new developments the series follows its own path.

Asking rents relate to new lettings. The 2022 census, by contrast, captures the entire rent level across the existing stock and reports an average net cold rent of €7.8 per sqm. In all twelve boroughs, asking rents lie above census rents. The range by borough is shown in the table.

Social housing

Berlin's building authorities reported 13,754 approved apartments for 2025 according to the final figures of the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office, after 9,772 in 2024. Within social housing, the Senate granted approval for 5,175 apartments. Most subsidised apartments are aimed at middle incomes, with entry rents of €11.50 per sqm. At the end of 2023, Berlin counted just under 100,000 social housing units, against 105,000 a year earlier. Around 5,000 apartments leave their subsidy commitment each year.

Housing demand

For the period from 2022 to 2040, the 2024 Urban Development Plan Housing (Stadtentwicklungsplan Wohnen) puts housing demand at 272,000 apartments. The figure comprises additional demographic demand of 85,000 units from in-migration, relief demand of 137,000 apartments to establish a fluctuation reserve of around three percent, and a land reserve of 50,000 units. The plan makes no statements on future rent or price developments. In inner-city locations, additional housing arises predominantly through densification and conversion, in new quarters on the urban fringe through new construction.

Summary and outlook

For 2026, the market data show no uniform price trend for Berlin as a whole. The year-on-year change of -2.0 % is a citywide average. It combines boroughs, districts and neighbourhoods whose prices have developed differently.

The districts with the highest sales volumes are not moving in step either. In Friedrichshain (-1.0 %), Kreuzberg (2.0 %), Charlottenburg (2.0 %), Wilmersdorf (0.0 %) and Neukölln (2.0 %), prices have barely changed. In Prenzlauer Berg (-6.0 %) and Schöneberg (-6.0 %) they have fallen, in Mitte (-11.0 %) markedly. Very large swings mostly come from districts with few sales. In Halensee, the price rose by 15.0 % on 79 sales.

On the interest-rate side, the ECB Governing Council raised all three key interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on 10 September 2026, following a first step in June. On 29 October it left rates unchanged. The deposit facility rate currently stands at 2.50 %, the main refinancing operations rate at 2.65 % and the marginal lending facility rate at 2.90 %. For ten-year loans, the broker Interhyp reported rates of around 4.2% on 10 September and around 4.4% at the end of October.

Die Linke won the election to the Berlin House of Representatives on 20 September 2026 with 25.7%. Since 2 November, Die Linke, the Greens and the SPD have been negotiating a coalition. Their exploratory paper includes the socialisation of housing companies with more than 10,000 apartments in Berlin, a rent cap for state-owned housing and a new-build programme. None of this has been adopted so far.

For owners and buyers, it is therefore worth assessing the political plans soberly. Key rules on rents and rent increases are set at federal level. Berlin can monitor how they are applied and pursue its own initiatives, but it can shape the legal framework only in part.

The long-term perspective for Berlin's housing market lies in demand: housing is needed. Anyone who buys, builds or develops property in Berlin meets a demand that extends beyond the current legislative period.

Methodology

Data as of this edition: transaction data from Berlin's Committee of Valuation Experts as of 13 October 2026; interest rate data from the Deutsche Bundesbank up to August 2026. Figures for the current year are year-to-date and not directly comparable with completed years. Purchase contracts are reported to the committee with a delay, so figures for past quarters may still change.

Prices per square metre refer to living area and are shown as both average and median; prices per building and multiples are shown as averages. For 2026, evaluable price data were available for 214 of the 490 sales, and a multiple for 114. Where case numbers are small, for example at borough level, individual large or high-priced properties can strongly influence volume and averages.

Calculation and presentation at the level of boroughs and former boroughs: GUTHMANN®. The figures are based on a model-driven analysis and do not replace official statistics. Deviations are possible.