Germany's student housing sector has consistently outperformed the rest of the market for the last six years, and the trend is set to continue, analysis presented at Expo Real shows.
The student housing price index report, compiled by Cologne Institute for Economic Research together with landlord DREF, studied the market trend in 15 university towns and cities. It analysed data from online housing platform Immobilienscout24 to study the effect on rents of a range of factors such as location, the condition of the building and the distance from campus.
The institute's senior economist Michael Voigtländer, head of the research unit for financial and real estate markets, said that in almost every city rent levels for students had risen faster than in the market as a whole.
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In Berlin prices have increased by 37% since 2010, while Munich and Stuttgart have also seen increases above 20%. Smaller cities such as Osnabrück have also experienced sharp rises, partly because of competition for housing between students and other single households such as young professionals and pensioners.
The one exception was Frankfurt, where the large number of development projects may have temporarily depressed the market, Voigtländer said. But elsewhere a shortage of supply was driving prices upwards.
''We still have high demand for student housing, not only from students but also from other kinds of single households,' said Voigtländer. 'On the other hand, construction activity in most cities in Germany is lagging behind so we have a huge gap and a shortage of supply because there are not enough building sites, so my forecast is that prices will be high in the German cities at least until the 2020s.'
