Rents are hardly rising anymore
Researcher: Many people simply can’t pay anymore
Updated 10/22/2025 – 2:12 p.mReading time: 1 min.
In many cities, rents are barely increasing or remain the same. Researchers see a simple reason for this.
The increase in rents on real estate portals is slowing down. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy announced that asking rents for unfurnished apartments rose by 0.5 percent from July to September compared to the previous quarter, without taking inflation into account. In the previous quarter the increase was 0.7 percent. Taking inflation into account, rents stagnated in the third quarter.
“The price dynamics on the rental market have cooled down significantly after the high increases in recent years,” said the responsible project manager at the Kiel Institute, Jonas Zdrzalek. Why is this development occurring despite high demand? Zdrzalek believes it is possible that a limit has been reached: tenants are no longer able or willing to pay rent. Demand may also shift towards furnished apartments and shared apartments.
In the major cities, asking rents rose the most in Leipzig (1.1 percent) and Düsseldorf (0.7 percent) compared to the previous quarter, without taking inflation into account. Rents there are generally cheaper than in other major cities. Rents in Hamburg fell by 0.2 percent and in Berlin by 0.3 percent. The reasons for the developments are not revealed in the statement.
The basis of the analysis is the “Greix rental price index”, which bundles asking rents in 37 German cities and regions. These are mostly urban figures from real estate platforms and broker websites. It should be noted that some apartments do not appear on such portals. This can apply, for example, to cheap apartments that are arranged among friends.
