Housing: Banks give a fifth more loans for residential properties

Consumers and investors are increasingly asking for real estate loans after long doldries. In the first half of the year, banks awarded new financing of a good 70 billion euros – 17 percent more than a year earlier, said the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (VDP). The plus was particularly large for loans for residential property loans: they increased by 22 percent to 46 billion euros, according to the association, which represents the most important real estate financiers in this country.

“Apparently, investors and private households have now adapted to the new interest rate level,” said VDP general manager Jens Tolckmitt. This is cheap in a long -term comparison. Drivers for the increasing figures are the strong demand for living space and a high investment pressure among investors. The association expects the demand for real estate loans to continue to increase in the second half of the year.

Real estate market is slowly coming out of the crisis

The figures show that the German real estate market picks up speed again and that investors are also involved again – for example with apartment buildings. More loans were also granted for commercial properties that suffer from the crisis in the home office trend. Here, however, only an increase of 8.6 percent was around 24 billion euros.

With residential properties, the increase in loans for apartment buildings was particularly strong with a plus of a good 30 percent. Loans for single and two-family houses as well as condominiums have ever increased by around one fifth.

The real estate market in Germany had slipped into the crisis after years of boom. The trigger was a strong increase in interest rate and rapidly rising construction costs. The prices gave up after the climax of the BOOM 2022. In the meantime, the interest has stabilized, the prices attract again in many places.