More home purchases thanks to child allowance for home buyers
The figures come from an analysis by the Hamburg Institute for Urban, Regional, and Housing Research (Gewos). The institute also investigated which regions saw particularly high numbers of house purchases. The results clearly showed that the suburbs of large cities are particularly popular with buyers. Sales in the Pinneberg district near Hamburg rose by 23.6 percent, almost a quarter. More houses were also bought in Hamburg itself last year.
However, the Hanseatic city is an exception among the major cities. This is because the shortage of living space is already making itself felt here. The markets appear to have been swept clean. In most other major cities, on the other hand, sales figures declined slightly. The same applies to sales figures for condominiums. Here, sales fell by 0.8 percent. Germans therefore seem to increasingly prefer their own house in the suburbs to an apartment in the city.
Sales prices also rose. On average, a home cost €267,000 last year. That is 7.5 percent more than in the previous year. No wonder, then, that total sales of single-family and two-family homes rose to €66.3 billion – an increase of almost ten percent compared to the previous year.
Unfortunately, the high sales figures are not so much due to new construction as to existing properties changing hands. If demand remains similarly high in the coming years – which is to be expected at this point in time – then living space could soon become scarce even in the affluent suburbs of major cities.
How do we know that the child allowance for home buyers is also a reason for the rising sales figures?
Of course, the question now arises as to whether the child allowance for home buyers is actually responsible for the rise in sales figures. Experts at Gewos certainly think so. Sales figures skyrocketed in the second half of the year, when the subsidy was approved. Banks are also reporting high demand for the child allowance for home buyers.
It therefore remains exciting to see how sales figures will develop in the coming years. The subsidy, which gives families with children a total of €12,000 per child over a period of ten years when they build or buy a property, will remain in place until the end of 2020.
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