Property Market in Wuppertal, Germany

About the City:

Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in the west part of Germany. There’s a population of about 350.000, and the name Wuppertal comes from the river ”Wupper” which flows through the city. Some key characteristics of the town include the suspension railway, ‘’Schwebebahn’’, the university and the Pina Bausch dance theater. The Schwebebahn is one of the defining features in Wuppertal, due to the fact that the train is actually upside-down.

Areas in Wuppertal, Germany

As in all other countries, the market in Wuppertal is divided into rental properties and properties to buy. Wuppertal is also divided into 6 different sectors, which have a strong influence on rental and purchase prices. Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Ronsdorf and Beyenburg all have different prices for various types of properties. 

Prices for renting and buying

The cheapest area to buy and rent in Wuppertal is Elberfeld and the highest prices are found in Cronenberg. The prices generally start at 6.01 EUR/m² and goes up to 8.36 EUR/m².

For buying a house in Wuppertal, expect to pay 2.442,05 EUR/m² at …

Read More →

Trump on His Way Out?

It seems that no matter where Donald Trump goes, drama follows him like a duckling follows its mother. Ever since he entered the political race last election, the whole world has been watching him extremely closely. There’s no shortage of horror stories with things he’s said, done or even tweeted. Since the beginning there has been people who want him out of office and have tried to make that happen. However, Trump has done great things with the U.S. economy. He has created over 4 million jobs and significantly lowered the unemployment rate. Some may say he is just piggybacking on Barrack Obama’s success with his economic turnaround, but there’s no question Trump is economically savvy and contributed in some way. The most recent headlines regarding Trump show a massive push to see his impeachment. This isn’t the first time this has been brought up, but this time does seem to have much stronger roots.

With the 2020 election just around the corner, candidates including Trump are preparing and trying to get a step up on their competition. A major …

Read More →

Dortmund, Germany – Geography and Demographics

Geography 

With a population of approx. 590,000, Dortmund is the eighth largest city in Germany, and is about the same as Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Essen. The more than 1100 years old city is considered the “heart of Westphalia”.

Dortmund is an important traffic junction on the north-eastern edge of the Ruhr area which borders the Sauerland area in the south-east as well as the Münsterland area in the north. Geographically, Dortmund has the following coordinates: 51° 30′ 58″ north latitude and 7° 28′ 05″ east longitude.

Dortmund lays between 50 and 254 meters above sea level. South of the city border, the river “Lenne” flows into the river “Ruhr”, which in turn flows into the “Rhine” river about 70 km west. The old Hanseatic city is connected to the North Sea via the Dortmund-Ems Canal, the end point of which is the more than 100-year-old Dortmund harbor.

Demographics

Dortmund’s population grew rapidly in the time of the 19th century industrialization when coal mining and steel processing in the city began. 1904 marks the year when Dortmund saw a population of …

Read More →

UN Sent Irish Government a Letter on Housing Crisis

The Irish government received a letter in March from the UN rapporteur, Leilani Farha, stating that, “housing in Ireland is moderately unaffordable.” The UN was using this letter as a wakeup call to the Irish government and made some very serious allegations. One of the allegations that the letter made was, “house prices are now approaching levels last seen at the height of the property bubble.” This statement relives a terrible time in the history of Ireland. The Irish government responded by saying that average households only spend one-fifth of their income on housing costs but acknowledged some prominent issues that need to be improved.

A couple of the top problems stated in the letter related to land hoarding and equity landlords. First, land hoarding occurs when investors will purposefully sit on a property to increase demand and lower supply in the area before selling/renting. This is causing major problems for citizens that are struggling to keep up with the increasing prices. The other problem is landlords, “have openly discussed policies of introducing the highest rents possible in order to …

Read More →

Ireland affordability from a US student standpoint: Groceries

There are many noticeable aspects that differ significantly between the United States and Ireland. For me, one of the largest changes is that the value of every euro I have us significantly more than that of my US dollar.

When coming to Ireland, I used my local bank to exchange dollars for euros with the euro being 1.2 times more valuable than my crisp dollar bill. Although I was aware of this rate, it has continuously thrown me off as I go in and out of sandwich shops, Tesco’s and the occasional Spar.

When I walk into any of these places, I think only in terms of my euros in hand. I am amazed by the €4 sandwiches, the €1.5 salads, and in general much less expensive grocery prices. When getting my first installment of groceries, I was amazed by the €36 price. This is because I usually spend around $50 at the grocery store in the US in order to stock up with those same ingredients.

Although that seemed cheap, the extra $5 in conversion made the payment just …

Read More →

Is the Housing Gap Increasing?

With an attempt to lift the housing market out of the current crisis it’s in, the Irish government is left to answer one very important question. Is the Help to Buy scheme even helping?

Or…is it worsening the gap of the home hunters who are looking for the ability to buy?

As what is already well known, house prices are soaring. Without the supply of housing increasing at any fast rate, this will continue to be the case.

Therefore, home prices are continuing to rise, much faster than incomes are rising, and the gap between available homes and affordable homes is continuing to worsen.

When looking at reports from CSO, the average wage in Ireland is €45,075 for a full-time employee. That number is, however, much lower as a median, where most of the working class clusters. The median is found at €28,500. A drastic difference and even more of a surprise when finding that, that means, nearly half the population is below that number.

This is where the Help to Buy scheme comes into play.

Introduced just earlier this …

Read More →

When Vulture Funds Buy Mortgages

As vulture funds have been seen as taking over the market, the next question is, what do we do next? What happens after a vulture fund takes over your mortgage?

These funds first entered the Irish market at the end of the financial crisis and since, have remained a consistent factor in the mortgage game. Though many years have now passed since they were first introduced, there is still much uncertainty that remains with what exactly these funds are.

Vulture funds essentially entail the many forms of private equity firms and pension funds that exist with the goal of investing across many asset classes such as debt. Debt often acting in the form of mortgage arrears.

The question many are wondering is why? Why are these vulture funds deciding to buy the mortgages that are in arrears?

Due to post-financial crisis events, there was an extremely high number of mortgages that were in arrears as a direct effect, and many that will be in long-term arrears as well.

Because banks are generally not willing to write down any debt of …

Read More →

Irish Housing Market Full of Problems

Problems have been arising with mortgage interest rates in Ireland for quite some time now.  As there has been a worsened housing market and much conflict has arisen from it, the uncertainty of many different aspects have come to arise.

Many banks have had to make competitive advances in the market just to stay relative and appealing to their customers. The housing market has simply become a game in Ireland.

Without constant changing rates, their appeal would diminish, in turn, causing a fall in their overall customer base. A rapid decline in business would quickly be seen.

Most recently, Ulster Bank announced more drastic cuts to their interest rates that would, in turn, also affect their fixed rate mortgage offerings. This was done as a way to stay competitive as many other primary banks for lending have been recently seen as doing similar things.

The Irish housing market is offering customers some of the highest variable rates accessible across the eurozone. Ireland’s average variable rate stands at 3.37% while the rest of the eurozone has an average of just 1.8%. …

Read More →

Alternative Reason for the Rise in Home Prices

As we track the Irish mortgage market, the soaring prices are blamed much on the shortage in supply alongside a growing demand.

The law of supply and demand dictate much of what happens in the economy and the many financial phenomena in which are seen.

This, being a large reason as to why the supply and demand law is being blamed for much of what is happening in the Irish housing market today.

To do an analysis on what actually caused the flawed market that there is today, it is important to study the market as it was in 2006. The market boom before the bust.

In 2006, home construction was at peak levels, with nearly 90,000 homes built. With a population of just around four million, that is an impressive number for home production to occur.

This, however, is where the law of supply and demand began to become of question.

As homes were on the rise and an increase in supply was seen, prices continued to rise as well. The opposite of what the supply and demand law …

Read More →

Foundations of a Strong Housing Market

With the Irish housing market remaining at such a loss, it is important that we recognize what the core foundations are that act as a basis for continuing growth. By recalling these foundations and working to improve them, there is a stronger potential to understanding the true issue with the overall crisis.

Last year, Ireland experienced the highest number of home construction since 2009. With 19,271 homes built to create a growth of 29%. Though an impressive improvement, this number still falls substantially below the goal number of newly constructed homes.

This increase, though not the goal, is, however, a good sign of progress and hope for the housing market to finally return to regular levels.

Some other marginal improvements that can be noted in the market currently are; housing commencements were seen to increase by ⅓, the volume of building activity is at a high, and 13,842 new dwelling units have been approved for construction. All in which represent some of the highest improvements since 2009.

Though there are many positive things happening in the housing market, what we …

Read More →
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 14