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 …

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German Property Market – Rules, Regulations and Taxation

Legal Restrictions

There are no specific legal restrictions on cross-border real estate investments in Germany for foreigners. Normally a valid passport and an adequate capital will be sufficient to purchase property. It should be noted that private investors will not be given residential status merely by acquiring property in Germany, as is the case in some other European countries.

With regard to indirect real estate investments, however, some general rules apply. They are laid down in different laws and are binding for both foreign and domestic investors.

Ownership in Germany

The owner of a property is generally in possession of both the plot of land and any buildings upon it. The rights to ownership and inheritance are guaranteed by law.

If an investor acquires a single flat in a multi-family house, it is a matter of property ownership. However, this property ownership does not entail ownership of the land and building associated with the property. Instead the investors obtain a co-ownership share of the jointly owned property which the flat is a part of. 

According to private law, the owner …

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Dortmund Property Market – areas, prices and average costs

Areas and Districts

The city of Dortmund is divided into twelve distinct districts. All city districts are then subdivided into a total of 62 statistical districts. Some of main, more well known districts include Downtown-West, Downtown-North, Downtown-East, Eving, Scharnhorst, Brackel, Aplerbeck, Hörde, Hombruch, Lütgendortmund, Huckarde and Mengede. 

Price fundamentals

Housing prices in Dortmund depend greatly on a number of factors, not unlike any other city. As any good realtor will tell you, pricing is mainly contingent on location. After that buys and sellers look for things such as year of construction, the condition of the property, living space, date of last modernization, final energy requirement (e.g. quality of insulation), surroundings, neighbourhood, car parking spaces or garages and much more. For this reason the following information may differ.

Development of prices / rents

The Empirica Price Database and others form the basis for the following comments on the property price development in Dortmund:

Depending on location, interior or other criteria from above, the current rent for an apartment in Dortmund are somewhere in between 7 € and 12 € per square …

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Ireland: Dealing With Crisis

In previous articles, I’ve discussed the ever increasing population of unemployed and homeless people in Ireland, as well as the rising housing prices. At times the two may go hand-in-hand. Higher cost of living could lead to homelessness, and so on. Within the last 12 years, the homeless population has tripled and the cost of living in Ireland has risen to 102% higher than the EU average. These two issues have rooted themselves all throughout Ireland, with no signs of being deweeded. While looking at the issues from an outside perspective may leave you believing nothing is happening to solve these circumstances, the government does have some plans in place to combat said issues. 

The Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) is one of the largest contributors to the development of various social housing services. One of their main goals is to “deliver housing and combat homelessness”. The ICSH has already proposed their plan and budget for next year. With funding from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the ICSH has “an overall package of €2.6 billion to …

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Helping the Homeless: Ireland vs. U.S.

There’s no question that within the last five or so years, the homeless population in Ireland has significantly increased. People in less than ideal conditions can be seen while walking down the streets of Dublin. Although unemployment in Ireland is nothing new, as with any country, there has been a noticeable increase in that population. “Focus Ireland” found that since 2007, the total homeless population has more than tripled. It seems that in the United states however, the opposite is occurring. Since the same year (2007), the homeless population in the U.S. has decreased by roughly 15% (which is almost 100,000 individuals). Whether a countries homeless population is on the rise or decline, there will always be some amount of homeless. So, the question remains: What does each country do to support this continuous population?

In Ireland, there are things such as soup runs and emergency sleeping accommodations for rough sleepers (people physically sleeping on the streets). For the most part, there are places to get some food and possibly a place to stay. These however are very short-term solutions. …

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Eoghan Murphy Receiving Heavy Criticism Over Co-Living Scheme

Minister of Housing, Eoghan Murphy, has been receiving heavy criticism since publicly supporting the co-living plan in Ireland. In co-living private spaces such as a bedroom or bathroom is owned privately, while, public spaces like kitchens and living rooms are shared among different tenants. Eoghan Murphy calls these new co-living buildings being built as, “very trendy boutique hotels.” This statement has triggered many heated responses from people who believe this type of living is horrible. Some of the critics that he has received includes being called, “out of touch” and a person asked, “what planet is this Minister living on”.

In support of Eoghan Murphy, there has been success in these types of living spaces all throughout Europe and North America. If the developer puts enough money into the space it can become a great option for younger adults seeking more affordable housing options. These spaces do hinder one’s privacy, but it also encourages a sense of community and meeting new people. This could also be an attractive scheme for young adults moving to Ireland for work who do not …

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Construction slowing in new home development sector

With competition for loan approval building, home development companies are feeling the heat. This year has proved to be one of the most difficult for possible consumers to obtain loans, largely due to the uncertainty that Brexit brings to the table. Due to the lack of accessibility of funds when attempting to purchase a home, many homes have simply gone unfilled. 

Goodbody Stockbrokers, a  company that specializes in asset management and global investment funds, has taken a clear interest to the changes that are currently happening in the market. This company developed a house building tracker, which in turn showed that from April to June 2019 there was a sharp decline in the output of newly developed housing. 

This is largely due to the fact that without the high availability of loans, many homes simply are not getting sold. In the lower priced areas of the housing market, there is significant competition but any home that is priced at or above €500,000 has been struggling to get off the market. In general, this trend is showing that affordability is becoming …

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Rebuilding Ireland is Outdated

The launch of Rebuilding Ireland has just surpassed three years. Many factors have changed since the original plan was initiated. Some figures that were estimated at the time of the launch for Rebuilding Ireland are now out of date. Rebuilding Ireland needs to be re-examined for optimal use because it is not performing as it was initially supposed to.

When the plan was originally drafted, it was predicted that the current number of homeless people would be 65% lower than the current number. The plan was not originally supposed to solve the homeless problem of this magnitude (10,000+ people) which is one of the reasons why it is ineffective. Everybody that is involved in the housing crisis believes this number is lower than what the current statistic is and is not an accurate reflection. with that are not included in this study are people who are crowd surfing, people doubling up with their family, and people sleeping rough. In addition, the 800 people that have been granted refugee or protection are not calculated for.

The prior Minister for Housing signaled …

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Fast-Track Planning System

The fast-track planning system was introduced in 2017 by the Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy. The program was aimed at expediting large scale developments and introduced the system for strategic housing development legislation. The fast track planning system is now subject to undergo public review.

The strategic housing scheme allowed fast track decision making for large scale housing schemes. The legislation allowed developers planning to build large scale housing schemes to make their case directly to the An Bord Pleanala. This allowed developers to by pass local authority decision making processes and thus, the planning  process is expedited. With out the fast track planning system, large scale developments would have to be approved by local authorities and then could be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

The Strategic Housing Development system gave effect to the commitment in Rebuilding Ireland. This commitment is defined as “fast-track” devision making for large scale housing and student accommodation schemes.

According to the rules of the fast track housing planning system, developers building sites with 100 or more housing units or 200 or more student housing units …

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Outlook on the Irish Housing Market

Key issues regarding the stability of the Irish economy seen in the housing market. The key issue of the housing crisis can be defined as growing demand that is not meet by current supply.

Many current government policies are concerned with increasing the volume of supply of completing housing units. For example, Rebuilding Ireland is associated with increasing housing supply to reduce homelessness. However, over the past 3 years supply has increased but housing prices have increased at a rate higher than the increase in supply. Governmental policies focus too much on supplying more volume instead of focusing on the affordability of housing.

According to Goodbody BER Housebulding Tracker, it is estimated that an additional 18,855 new housing units were added in 2018. This estimation is in line with previous forecasts. The majority of new dwelling competitions in 2018 were located in the Greater Dublin Area. More specifically, housing completions in the Greater Dublin Area accounted for 60% of the total new housing schemes in 2018. Although there has been an increase in the supply of housing, many problems in …

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