Legal proceedings
Significantly more properties foreclosed on
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After many years of low numbers, more houses, apartments and land went under the hammer in 2024. The economic crisis and rise in interest rates leave their mark. There are big regional differences.
In view of the economic crisis and rise in interest rates, significantly more properties in Germany are being foreclosed on. According to research by the specialist publisher Argetra, court proceedings were opened for 13,445 houses, apartments and properties in 2024, after 12,332 in the previous year. This means the increase has accelerated.
For the report, Argetra analyzed the dates for foreclosure auctions at all of the almost 500 local courts in this country. The value of the foreclosed properties rose from around 3.9 billion to 4.3 billion euros in 2024.
Both the weak economy with rising unemployment and the ailing real estate market had an impact, the authors wrote. Interest rates have fallen somewhat after the sharp increase, but a new real estate boom is not in sight. The financial burden that private customers spend on average for their real estate financing has increased over the past three years. The authors expect a further increase in foreclosures in 2025.
Only half of the cases end up in court
The number of foreclosures in Germany had previously been falling for years. The reason was the long-standing good economy, the real estate boom and the low interest rates, which made loans cheap.
In 2024, residential properties were foreclosed in a good two-thirds of the cases, with the lion’s share of single- and two-family homes, followed by condominiums, according to Argetra. Only around half of the foreclosure proceedings opened end up in court. The rest of the properties will be sold freely on the market.
North Rhine-Westphalia, as the most populous federal state, has been leading the way in foreclosures for years with a share of around 21 percent, it was said. Accordingly, in 2024, a national average of 33 out of 100,000 households were affected by foreclosures. The number of scheduled appointments in Thuringia (59) was more than twice as high as in Bavaria (25).
dpa
Source: Stern