New publication: An Unbalanced Housing Market?

In some urban agglomerations in Germany, housing rents increased significantly during the last years. In a contribution for ifo Schnelldienst, Andreas Mense shows with the examples of Cologne, Munich and Hamburg that the current price increases are mainly caused by low construction activity in the past. At Cologne and Munich, where construction activity was outpaced by growth of population, rents increased sharply even in the lower price segment.

Mense, Andreas, Eva Lohse, Jan Mutl, Heiko Kirchhain, Reiner Braun und Andreas Dombret (2016): Steigende Immobilienpreise und steigende Wohnungsnot: Wohnungsmarkt aus dem Gleichgewicht?, ifo Schnelldienst 69(16): 3–25, https://www.cesifo-group.de/ifoHome/publications/journals/ifo-Schnelldienst/Archiv/sd2016.html (in German).