Asking rents across Germany rose 4% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, outpacing the general inflation rate of around 2.6%, as the number of rental listings fell nearly 12% below early-2022 levels. Cologne recorded the steepest increase at 7.9%, followed by Hamburg at 5.5% and Leipzig at 5.4%, while Stuttgart and Berlin saw more modest gains of 0.9% and 1.0% respectively. Quarter-on-quarter, rents climbed 1.3% between April and June.
Supply constraints appear to be driving the increases. Rental listings in Hamburg more than halved compared with early 2022, while Frankfurt saw a 43% drop.
The sales market showed broader stability. Purchase prices for apartments and single- and semi-detached homes edged up 0.8% year-on-year nationally, though local trends diverged sharply — prices rose 5.0% in Dortmund but fell 1.9% in Munich. The pool of properties for sale has grown significantly, with roughly twice as many apartments listed as in the first quarter of 2022.