German home prices decline in Q2 but show some stabilisation

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German residential property prices continued to fall in the second quarter, dropping by an average of 2.6% year-on-year, but they showed some signs of stabilisation, federal statistics office data showed on Friday.

The annual declines have slowed over recent quarters, and prices rose 1.3% in the second quarter from the first three months of the year, the first quarter-on-quarter increase since 2022.

For years, the property sector in Germany and elsewhere in Europe boomed as interest rates were low and demand strong.

But a sharp rise in rates and costs put an end to the run, tipping developers into insolvency as bank financing dries up and deals freeze.