The purchase prices and rental costs in Frankfurt have one thing in common: they have been rising for years.

However, they do not do so at the same pace.

While purchase prices have risen by an average of ten percent per year on a long-term average, rents have risen by a total of only six percent over the past five years.

The Frankfurt owners' association Haus & Grund draws attention to this.

And the owner representatives have observed something else: wages have also increased over the same period – twice as much as rents.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Haus & Grund relies on figures from the Federal Employment Agency for the development of remuneration.

When it comes to rents, the association relies on information from the Hamburg Institute F+B Research and Consulting, which compiles numerous rent indexes and is considered a reliable source.

Accordingly, wages in Frankfurt between 2015 and 2020 increased by twelve percent to 4174 euros gross.

Existing rents increased by six percent to EUR 10.73 per square meter per month and new lease rents by 5.1 percent to EUR 11.81.

"No reason to give the all-clear"

"For many Frankfurters, this means a relative reduction in housing costs," says Jürgen Conzelmann, Chairman of Haus & Grund in Frankfurt.

However, he does not deduce from the figures that the city could now sit back and relax.

"Even if one can say that the majority of Frankfurters had to spend a smaller part of their income on rent in 2020 than in 2015, this should not be a reason to give the all-clear given the current developments and challenges on the housing market." the continuing lack of apartments and building land, enormously increasing ancillary costs, rising construction costs and increasing energy requirements, especially for older buildings, are largely due to political decisions.

He finds it worrying that purchase prices are rising faster than rents.

While tenants in Frankfurt would have to spend relatively less of their wages on rent over time, fewer and fewer people and young families could make the dream of owning their own home possible.

This is another reason why Conzelmann thinks that local and regional politics must make more space available for building areas.

He's not only thinking of the new district in the northwest on the A5, but also of the Günthersburghöfe in the north end and even of the Pfingstberg between Nieder-Eschbach and Nieder-Erlenbach.

The Günthersburghöfe in particular is an ecologically sustainable project with a high proportion of subsidized apartments.

"There could still be a lot of living space close to the city, which ultimately also contributes to reducing the flow of commuters."

"Taking down the problem of the housing crisis"

In addition, the Roman coalition should revise old development plans.

"We have to find ways of creating more new apartments in existing buildings - for example by making it easier to add floors." More new apartments are the most effective way to dampen price increases.

Haus & Grund is also calling on federal and state politicians to provide reliable support for energy-related refurbishment of residential buildings: the modernization of the building sector causes considerable costs that the owners could not possibly bear on their own.

In order to enable more people to purchase residential property despite the high purchase prices, the state of Hesse should grant a real estate transfer tax exemption for the first property they use themselves.

The left criticizes the statements by Haus & Grund as "remote from reality".

"To claim that living in Frankfurt is becoming more and more affordable is ignorant," says housing policy spokesman Eyup Yilmaz.

Rents have been rising continuously for years, even during the pandemic, which has hit many people hard.

At the same time, food and energy prices have increased.

"The low wage increases cannot keep up with the enormous price increases, especially in the housing sector," says Yilmaz, without statistically substantiating his statements.

"To speak of a relaxation on the housing market is pure mockery for all tenants." The left-wing politician accuses Conzelmann of "greed for profit": The authors of the "study" are not concerned with realistically depicting the housing market,